How to Recycle Household Cleaners
Bleach, ammonia, drain and oven cleaners, disinfectants, and general purpose sprays. Mostly a mixing hazard rather than a disposal problem.
Quick answer
Using a cleaner up as directed is the simplest disposal, and for mild products it is the right answer. Corrosive drain and oven cleaners belong at household hazardous waste. The rule that actually protects people is never mixing: bleach with ammonia produces chloramine gas, and bleach with an acid produces chlorine gas. Rinsed empty bottles usually recycle with plastics.
- Recyclable
- Not curbside
- 1Use the product up as directed, which is the cleanest outcome for mild cleaners
- 2Offer unopened or barely used products to a neighbour, shelter, or community group
- 3Keep everything in its original labeled container
- 4Never combine two cleaning products, and never store them decanted together
- 5Take corrosive drain openers, oven cleaners, and anything labeled danger or poison to household hazardous waste
- 6Check your local rules before pouring even mild cleaner down a drain, especially on a septic system
- 7Rinse empty bottles and recycle them with plastics where your program accepts them
- 8Ventilate while cleaning, and never mix in a closed bathroom
- Household hazardous waste facilities, for corrosives and anything labeled danger or poison
- Municipal collection events
- Curbside plastics recycling, for rinsed empty bottles
- Neighbours, shelters, and community groups, for unopened surplus
The mixing hazard is the part worth memorising, and the dangerous combinations hide in ordinary products. Washington's Department of Health notes that bleach mixed with ammonia produces chloramine gas and bleach mixed with acids produces chlorine gas, and the hidden sources are the catch: ammonia is present in urine, so litter boxes and diaper pails count, and acids include ordinary vinegar and some dishwasher detergents. That makes the classic accident cleaning a litter box or a toilet with bleach after using another product. On disposal, mild cleaners are commonly used up or diluted and drained, while corrosives, oven cleaners, and anything carrying a danger or poison signal word go to household hazardous waste. Local rules vary and septic systems change the calculation, so check yours rather than assuming.
Most of what goes down the drain from cleaning is handled by wastewater treatment, which is why agencies distinguish mild products from corrosives rather than treating every bottle as hazardous. Concentrated corrosives are a different matter and can damage plumbing and interfere with septic bacteria on the way out. The larger effect is upstream: buying fewer, simpler, more concentrated products removes both the packaging and the leftover.
- Vinegar and baking soda for routine cleaning
- Castile soap
- Concentrated refills that cut packaging
- Giving away surplus unopened products
Not Accepted
- Any two products combined in one container
- Corrosive drain and oven cleaners in curbside trash or recycling
- Full or partly full containers in a recycling bin
- Cleaners poured into a storm drain
- Sodium hypochlorite in bleach, which forms toxic gases when mixed
- Ammonia, including the ammonia present in urine
- Sodium hydroxide and sulfuric acid in drain and oven cleaners
- Quaternary ammonium compounds and other disinfectant actives
Recycling centers that accept Household Cleaners
RecycleFind lists recycling centers that accept household cleaners. Open a listing for hours, contact info, and directions.