Test kit regent disposal

[Colton.]

How do you dispose of test kit regents?

 

[Colton.]

@Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I generally dispose of mine down the drain, but I suppose it might depend on what kits we are talking about.

 

[dee_es]

This is my question too! We have both API and Hanna kits and both say not to dispose into the environment. Where should we be disposing this stuff then, please?

 

[Colton.]

Alk = hanna
Phosphate = hanna
Calcium = red sea
Magnesium = salifert or red sea
Nitrate = nyos

 

[Joe31415]

Toss it down the sink drain. Not something I've ever given a second thought to. The warnings I've seen on some of the instructions do make me try to keep the stuff off my hands, but that's about it as far as precautions.
However, assuming you're connected a municipal sewerage system, you're not disposing it into the environment. It's going to go through a sewage treatment plant first. You might need to be more concerned if you're putting it into a septic system or treating it like gray water.

I'm guessing it's more that they don't want you dumping the chemicals on your lawn or garden. Not that a few mls of reagent are going to do a whole lot if they make it to the groundwater, "dispose of it in accordance with your local regulations" is a good way for them to cover their *****.

 

[Colton.]

I don't think I'm on a municipal
System. It goes from the toilet to the septic tank in the yard.

 

[Malcontent]

I empty the test tubes into a small plastic cup (basically a single use Jello cup) and let the water dry. It takes a long time to fill a small container so you can worry about actual disposal sometime in the future.

 

[Joe31415]

I don't think I'm on a municipal
System. It goes from the toilet to the septic tank in the yard

No, then you're not. Your septic tank and back yard are processing all that.
And, with that, it would also mean not to dump it down your storm drains (the sewers out in the street) or on a non-permeable surface, like concrete, that will eventually lead to a storm drain the next time it rains. In areas with large bodies of water or rivers, the water gets dumped into there, unprocessed. I'm in Milwaukee, anything that goes into a storm drain will find itself in Lake Michigan a short time later.

But, again, we're still taking about chemicals, deemed safe enough for any random schmuck to handle, on a scale of milliliters. I wouldn't be surprised if there's plenty of chemicals around your house that are just as, if not more, dangerous to you and/or the environment. Bleach, ammonia, gasoline, acetone, naptha, lye (drain cleaner), various pesticides, formaldehyde/formalin (not uncommon in the SW fish hobby) and the list goes on and on.
If you've ever spent time working on cars, think about how much carb cleaner you've inhaled over the years.

 

[Joe31415]

I empty the test tubes into a small plastic cup (basically a single use Jello cup) and let the water dry. It takes a long time to fill a small container so you can worry about actual disposal sometime in the future.

If you're going through the trouble of doing that, collect it in something bigger and bring it to your local hazmat disposal palce once a year or so. Or see if your city does an annual hazmat pick up for people to get rid of things like chemicals and used oil, old gas etc.

 

[Malcontent]

If you're going through the trouble of doing that, collect it in something bigger and bring it to your local hazmat disposal palce once a year or so. Or see if your city does an annual hazmat pick up for people to get rid of things like chemicals and used oil, old gas etc.

By letting the water dry out I can go for much more than a year before having to think about disposal. But, yeah, taking it to hazmat is probably the plan. I'll worry about it when the time comes.

 

[ying yang]

Just empty used test tube down the sink and goes to sewers.just as others said above its hardly anything a few ml and im sure as others have said other chemicals more potent.
Washing up liquid that we wash dishes with.when training to be a plumber we always got taught do not use this to test for gas leaks for example fitting a cooker and the bayonet fitting as basic washing up liquid corrosive to the fitting/ pipework eventually so on that note i bet under my kitchen sink with the 40 bottles of cleaning products that ends up going down the drain are much more off a problem but water board knows this im sure but never even crossed my mind about if wrong to put down sink ^_^

 

[BeTreyed]

I just dump down the sink. When I worked in the veterinary field, we would wash our test samples that usually dealt with more potent reagents and such down the drain. Your usual dumping such a small amount that it has no effect and then it dilutes quickly.

 

[Colton.]

Ok thank you all.

 

[vic5hands]

The solution to pollution is dilution. Mix it plenty of water

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

This is my question too! We have both API and Hanna kits and both say not to dispose into the environment. Where should we be disposing this stuff then, please?

Local town waste collection days.

 

[Colton.]

Ok thanks all.

 

[dee_es]

Thank you everyone.