Disposal of liquid nicotine questions - how to not kill birds/bees/fish and humans by disposing properly?
Disposal of liquid nicotine questions - how to not kill birds/bees/fish and humans by disposing properly?
As title states I’m looking to dispose of a bunch of 200mg/ml liquid synthetic nicotine I’ve had stored in Boston round bottles for the last three-four years. It’s an artifact from when I used to vape and I’m tired of it taking up freezer space.
In its current form it is extremely toxic to just about goddamned everything. In its current potency it is even more of a hazard to everything. I’d like to dispose of it, properly. I’ve already called my local landfill and they will not accept it. I dunno where else to put it, or how else to make it inert.
Does anyone have suggestions for how to do so? It’s about 5 liters, btw. I also have about 100-ish bottle of flavorants from when I used to mix my own vape juices. I think those can just be emptied into a wad of paper towels and disposed of conventionally.
A friend of mine was in a similar situation with a dangerous chemical that he used for some hobby projects (an acid for glass etching)?
It wouldn't be accepted anywhere so he ended up calculating how diluted it needed to be and pouring it mixed with a lot of water down the sink.
For 5 litres of nicotine to be safe you'd need a lot of water though if you'd want to make this remotely ok for the environment...
What about mixing it with cat litter and then disposing it?
After quick look around it seems like its 0.01 % concentration, thats a lot of water. Throwing with litter over time (so it wont wind up in one place) seems better
Yeah I’m awkward enough I don’t think I’d attempt doing that, just because I’m bound to fuck it up somehow.
The 5 liters are broken down into 250ml bottles, so I’ll try at a bottle at first and assuming at absorbs well, I’ll just do that I think. It’s polyethylene glycol based so it’s carrier liquid is pretty thick but even if it take a few days to absorb fully I’ve got somewhere to let it work safely til I can toss it.
Thanks for the tidbit. Points me in the right direction.
Yeah, someone else mentioned kitty litter and toss it. I’ll probably give that a shot with an open bottle and see how that works.
You are right in that it would take a shitload of water to dilute down 5 liters of 200mg nic to be safe. I’m concerned Id botch something and end up creating an eco-nightmare. There have been two suggestions for kitty litter and dispose so that’s probably what I’ll end up doing.
I imagine there are ppl like me around you who would use it.
I’ve tried looking around just a bit. Even went to the vape shop close by that I used to frequent, just to ask. It’s a lot of high test synthetic nic, but even with the bottles filled to the necks and backfilled with nitrogen, and stuck in a freezer it’s well past its shelf life. Id love to give it to someone who can actually use it, but I figure it’s probably peppery/spicy as fuck now.
Have you looked into hazardous waste disposal in your area?
To be honest, no. That’s something I’m not really knowledgeable about so I assumed hazardous disposal just meant bury it real deep in the landfill instead of normal deep.
I might look into that first versus kitty litter and dispose. Thanks.
You're welcome. Ran into it for work and I get why it wouldn't spring to mind in general.
into kitty litter in a ziploc and then into the trash? that's how you get rid of like morphine and script meds.
I might try that, actually. That’s a good idea that never dawned on me. Thank you.
get the super absorbent kind!
mine just lives in amber jars in my freezer for eternity
If you're in the US, your local pharmacy likely hosts a drug take-back box. You can put it in there, and congratulations: Safe disposal is now the responsibility of the DEA. Yes, Nicotine is considered a drug for this purpose, so this is the correct place to dispose of the liquid. Remove any personally identifying information, because nobody wants the liability.
As far as the flavorants go, those aren't a drug. If you're concerned about safe disposal and can't/don't want to research safe disposal of them, you can drop those off at your municipality's local Household Hazardous Waste Day (or Zero Waste Day) whenever that occurs for you.
Between these two options, you can get rid of basically anything you can't figure out how to safely dispose of for free.
This is good advice I think. Thank you. The flavor agents will be going in the next few days, I have a CVS near me I will be poppin into to see if I can find the dropbox
Oh wow, few years ago I would have gladly taken that off your hands. Maybe try vaping communities? There are quite a few on reddit if you're willing to venture out there.
Given what the EPA classified unused nic as, I’m not sure I’ll just be putting it in kitty litter and disposing of it. That’s probably not correct procedure.
Thanks for the heads up comrade.
:illegal-to-say:
Down the drain. The sewerage system will handle dilution very quickly and it's better than a lot of cleaners and other chemicals that go into there.
Unless you live somewhere with a septic tank. Or a greywater system.
Why don't you start by leaving the bottles out in the sun? UV light accelerates decomposition. I've also read that heat and elemental selenium will destroy nicotine.
You could also add an acid to precipitate into nicotine salt, which might be easier to deal with. Pick an acid such that the resulting salt is insoluble in whatever the carrier liquid is (water? glycerol?). Then you have solid waste.
PLEASE don't play around with selenium.
Polyethylene glycol is the carrier.
Thanks for the tips. That sounds a little bit out of my comfort range, so I’ll likely just end up going the hazardous waste disposal route.
with 0 research: get some metal hot electrically (dab coil would be ideal) and set it up to drip it onto the coil next to a running HEPA filter