How to Dispose of Any Cleaning Chemicals Properly?
It happens to everyone. We buy lots of cleaning supplies in bulk for home or office but don’t use them. They are now expired, aren’t effective anymore and may even smell bad. What now? Should we just throw them away or pour them down the drain? How can you dispose of cleaning supplies and cleaning chemicals safely and properly? This is an important question as improper disposal may lead to environmental damage.
In this article, we’ll answer how to dispose of any cleaning chemicals safely without damaging the environment.
Why Should You Dispose of Cleaning Chemicals Correctly?
Many cleaning solutions, whether household or industrial cleaners contain chemical agents that may pose a danger to the environment in high concentrations if disposed of improperly.
Improper disposal of such harsh chemicals may enter water supplies, rivers or soil. When such chemicals somehow enter into the food chain, they cause biological damage to the environment, harm animals & wildlife and pose serious health threats to humans.
Many countries and governments enforce strict rules and regulations regarding the disposal, rescue and recycling of cleaning chemicals to prevent environmental damage. Therefore, it is strongly advised to follow these regulations when attempting to dispose of unused or expired cleaning chemicals.
Read More: When Should You Replace Cleaning Supplies & Equipment?
Read The Label & Know The Type of Chemicals
There are several different cleaning chemicals, each with specific disposal instructions. To make things harder, cleaning solutions often have a combination of different chemicals in them, making safe disposal seem impossible.
But it’s easier than it looks. All manufacturers print their products’ safe disposal methods on the packaging label. All you have to do is read the label and understand the type of the chemical and how to properly dispose of or recycle it.
The majority of cleaning chemicals like household or commercial cleaning solutions can be disposed of safely without doing anything special. However, industrial or specialised cleaning chemicals have specific disposal instructions.
Here are some examples of each type of cleaning chemical:
- Household & Commercial: surface cleaners, all-purpose cleaners, glass cleaners and bathroom descalers.
- Industrial: strong and heavy-duty degreasers or descalers, heavy-duty disinfectants and medical-grade sanitation solutions
- Specialised Cleaning Chemicals: highly concentrated bleach or ammonia, acid-based descalers or degreasers and other chemicals containing hazardous substances
Read More: Everything You Need to Know About COSHH
Don’t Just Pour It Down The Drain
The biggest mistake you can make when disposing of unused or expired cleaning chemicals is pouring them down the drain. This is incorrect and very dangerous regardless they’re regular cleaning chemicals or green cleaning supplies.
In certain cases, household cleaner manufacturers instruct you to dilute the chemicals in large amounts of water before pouring them down the drain. This applies to most household and commercially available beach and ammonia-based cleaners.
Find a Local Reuse & Recycling Centre (RRC)
The safest way to properly dispose of any cleaning chemicals is to take our unused or expired cleaning solutions to a Reuse & Recycling Centre (a.k.a. RRC). RRCs are government-run or council-run centres specialised in recycling unused chemicals and products, whether cleaning solutions, construction materials or otherwise.
You can google “recycling centre” followed by the name of your area to find the nearest RRC. Council websites also provide information on how to recycle chemicals yourself or directions to the nearest verified and certified Reuse and Recycling Centre in your area.
Employees in RRCs will take away your unused products and will resume, recycle or dispose of them according to regulations. This way, you can be sure that the disposal of your unused cleaning solutions has little to no environmental impact.
Read More: How to Reduce Office Rubbish Output?
Recycle The Packaging Too
In case the cleaning products provide you with easy disposal instructions at home, don’t forget to recycle packaging as well. That one doesn’t fit down the drain! Therefore, follow the local recycling regulations to properly dispose of the packaging as well.
Conclusion
Safe disposal of unused or expired cleaning chemicals is an important matter. Improper disposal of such harsh chemicals will significantly impact the environment and can directly enter the food chain and cause harm to wildlife as well as humans. In this article, we discussed how to safely and correctly dispose of or recycle unused and expired cleaning supplies without damaging the environment.
The information provided by this article can help you safely dispose of your unused cleaning chemicals while reducing your environmental impact.
