Disposal of corrosive and other nasty liquids ?

SVanderkolff

SVanderkolff

Joined
Oct 31, 2002
Messages
979
For those of you on a septic system, what do you do with your corrosive or otherwise nasty liquids to dispose of them. Our new property will have to have a septic system, which is a first for me, and from everything I have read pouring old acids or cleaners down into the septic is not a good thing. Even emptying the quench bucket from under my grinder may be a problem. What do you do?
Thanks
Steve
 
good question, I have a jug of FC I need to get rid of. I throw my quench/grinder bucket into my fire pit to join all the millions of nails from burning pallets. maybe someday it could make some tamahagane?
 
Your local county organizes household disposal HAZ collection for free



I've use that to get rid of:
Old paint
pesticide and lumber end cut treatment. ( really poisonous stuff)
Also Lye and other corrosive stuff that's busting out of its original container - put the can inside a clean plastic container.
You've got to label it with a label that's on the list otherwise they don't know how to deal with it.

http://www.town.southbruce.on.ca/page.php?page=garbage
http://www.town.southbruce.on.ca/do...old Hazardous and Special Waste Materials.pdf


Otherwise we just try to use it up.


Living in the country allows you to have a burn barrel, so any dirty solvents from cleaning I just use to light the fire.


Any sort of corrosive things like acid, I just put in the toilet, scrub the toilet and flush like normal.
Toilet cleaner is just acid.
It's a cup full a month maybe - not five gallons at a time.

You could use the haz disposal for them too.


Dead ferric chloride, or grinder dust I feed to the roses or put in the garden - they like the iron-to a point.
If it's excessive I throw it on the gravel shoulder to keep the dust down.



That all sounds pretty redneck and sloppy

however

Nothing gets flushed that won't rot.

That means no:
tampons, condoms, plastic wrappers or wax paper strips from tampons, nothing tampon related
baby wipes, apparently they are a huge problem in city systems.


no kitchen waste flushed or sink type garbage disposals - start a composted pile.
No chemicals near the well.


Pop open the septic tank lid, make sure you know how to find it year round, = map it to the building or something.
It should not form a crust.
get it sucked out and keep an eye on it so you know how long it takes until the next clean out.

We had a clean out once in 20 years, but that's because it was crusted,
The floating crust blocked the pipe from the house backing up in the house it was still running freely.

and of course
we had to dig it out in the wintertime and didn't know where to dig.


We've never used the additives, lots of bacteria there already - but if they really do help with the crust prevention it may have saved us from a backup.
we don't use low flow toilets, water is needed to move the stuff.
 
Last edited:
Lake Erie?


For oil, many places that sell automotive oil collect the used stuff, like Pep Boys. But acids are best dealt with as your community laws dictate.


A word of warning: I have heard stories of folks trying to "do the right thing" and call the city about some hazmat they found, and ending up with the fire department at their house, paying for that, clean up and fines. So be a little cagey in how you make your inquiries.
 
Just pack them in a box and send them by Canada Post to someone in Saskatchewan. They will probably take years to get there and have degraded ... or will just sit in some post office forever :)

Many things are not really toxic as much as corrosive. If wells are not the water source, making a deep hole (post hole diggers) and pouring them in with the hose running will allow them to soak in the ground and dissipate. Fill the hole with water every day for a while and then just fill in the hole. This will work for old acids, FC, vinegar scale removal tubs, etc. It is not for things that contain heavy metals, hydrocarbon liquids, or other toxins.
 
Wouldn't neutralizeing the acids with a mild base like baking soda make sense? It would form non toxic salts and water
 
On a similar note... a good way to dispose of old battery acid (the stuff used to refill lead-acid batteries)?
 
JSMcustoms said:
On a similar note... a good way to dispose of old battery acid (the stuff used to refill lead-acid batteries)?
Click to expand...

If you have a local haz disposal like I posted, they take that.

Sukphric acid in lead acid batteries can be neutralized with baking soda - sodium carbonate

But if you have a local scrap yard, they pay for the whole battery, keep the acid in it.
 
12345678910 said:
If you have a local haz disposal like I posted, they take that.

Sukphric acid in lead acid batteries can be neutralized with baking soda - sodium carbonate

But if you have a local scrap yard, they pay for the whole battery, keep the acid in it.
Click to expand...

It's not the whole battery... just the acid used to refill them in the container that my home's previously owner seems to have purchased and left behind in my shed. We don't have a local Hazmat disposal that I know of, but will look into it.
 
I'll comment on the other side of the coin here. The issue with pouring a lot of cleaners (bleach, disinfctants, etc...) into your septic tank is that it kills the bacteria that needs to be there to break down the waste, so instead of waste breaking down and going into your leach field, you end up pumping your tank more often. There are products to replace the bacteria. That's the way I understand it.
 
You can mix liquid with cheap cat litter to form a thick paste, then bag that and put it in the trash. A $4 bag of cat litter can deal with a lot of liquid - 5 gallons, I'm guestimating.
 
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