How to Recycle Pool Chemicals
Chlorine tablets and granules, calcium hypochlorite shock, muriatic acid, algaecides, and pH adjusters. Oxidizers, which behave differently from ordinary toxic chemicals.
Quick answer
Never put pool chemicals in the trash. Chlorine products are oxidizers, and mixed with wet garbage they have started fires: one New Jersey transfer station traced two separate blazes to pool chemicals thrown out with household waste. Take them sealed and in their original containers to household hazardous waste, and never combine two products, including two kinds of chlorine. Before you go, confirm that a local recycling center accepts the material in its current condition.
- Recycling route
- Special handling
How to Prepare
- 1Keep every product sealed in its original labeled container
- 2Never mix two pool chemicals, including two different chlorine products
- 3Keep chlorine away from anything organic, including rags, oil, garbage, and leaves
- 4Keep the containers dry, since moisture is what starts the reaction
- 5Store in a cool, ventilated space, never in a hot shed or a parked car
- 6Take leftovers to household hazardous waste rather than the trash
- 7Check your local rules before diluting and draining anything, since agencies differ
- 8Take unused product to a neighbour with a pool rather than disposing of it
Where to Recycle
- Household hazardous waste facilities
- Municipal and county collection events
- Other pool owners, for unopened surplus
Special Instructions
Oxidizers do not need a flame to cause a fire, they supply what a fire needs. The Morris County authority in New Jersey recorded two separate fires at its Mount Olive transfer station, in July 2003 and July 2008, both suspected to have started when pool chemicals discarded in regular trash reacted with wet garbage. That is the reason the trash is the wrong destination even for a small amount. Two products that seem interchangeable can also react with each other, so never combine chlorine types or add anything to a partly used container. Disposal guidance is not uniform: household hazardous waste is the safe default and what most programs specify, though some agencies, including Colorado's health department, do tell households to dilute and drain certain pool chemicals. Where two agencies disagree, follow your own local program. If you ever dilute muriatic acid, always add the acid to the water and never the water to the acid, because reversing it can boil and spit concentrated acid back at you.
Environmental Impact
Chlorine compounds are acutely toxic to aquatic life, so a slug of pool chemical reaching a storm drain damages the receiving water directly, since stormwater generally is not treated. Muriatic acid is corrosive enough to injure on contact and to damage plumbing. The practical way to avoid all of it is buying in quantities matched to a season rather than in bulk, since these products also degrade in storage, which is how half-used containers accumulate in the first place.
Official guidance and resources
Accepted items and drop-off rules can vary by location. Check the destination before you go.
What’s Accepted
Not Accepted
- Pool chemicals in household trash, which has started transfer station fires
- Two products combined in one container
- Chlorine stored or discarded alongside organic material
- Anything poured into a storm drain or onto the ground
- Containers with unreadable or missing labels at some collection sites
Hazardous Components
- Calcium hypochlorite and trichlor, strong oxidizers that can ignite organic material
- Muriatic acid, which is corrosive and produces chlorine gas if mixed with chlorine products
- Sodium bisulfate and soda ash pH adjusters
- Copper and quaternary ammonium algaecides, toxic to aquatic life
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