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How to dispose these Chemicals ?

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panigale

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Joined
Apr 24, 2016
Messages
3
Hello,

I would not want get in too many details but suppose hypothetically if you have these chemicals (listed below) do you think throwing them in a dirty river where all chemical wastes from factories go is an alright idea ?
Also if the listed chemicals were hypothetically in your bedroom for past 3 years in their original packing sealed, do you think it give you cancer or something ?

(I hope I am not breaking any rule. Forgive me if I did)

×Mercuric Chloride
×Paraformaldehyde
×Dimethyl Formamide
×Nitromethane
×p-Bezoquinone
 
The toilet would probably be good. And no, probably not (to the cancer question)
 
If they are in a sealed package you have nothing to fear from them. However, DO NOT throw them in a river or flush them as at least some of them are highly toxic. Actually I am going to move this to NPD as there are smart folks there who would probably be able to give you the least harmful answer.
 
Donate them to a local school, or contact your municipal waste management.
 
S.J.B. said:
Donate them to a local school, or contact your municipal waste management.
Click to expand...
^Not possible for certain reasons.
Anyways after doing some research, I am particularly concerned about Mercuric Chloride. From what I have read it is VERY toxic. 25gm plastic bottle of Mercuric Chloride. If I (hypothetically) throw it in the dirty river, what if it causes health trouble to population ? But the river is already used by factories for their waste...
 
Mercuric chloride can be dissolved in a solution of chelating agents similar to those used as antidotes to mercury poisoning:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Comparison of standard chelating agents for acute mercuric chloride poisoning in mice - PubMed

A comparison in mice has been made of the effectiveness of five chelating agents used clinically for acute mercuric chloride poisoning, or recommended for such use. The compounds examined were N-Acetyl-D,L-penicillamine (NAPA), D-penicillamine (DPA), 2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA), sodium...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

the chelated mercury(II) ions dissociate so poorly from the sulfuric compounds mentioned in that abstract that you can pretty much flush the chelate down the toilet or dig a hole in the ground and pour it there. You just need to make sure that there is a sufficient amount of the chelating agent compared to the mercury salt. The same probably applies if you precipitate the mercury salt as mercury(II)sulfide, which is extremely water insoluble and is found in natural minerals.

And the nitromethane can be burned or evaporated outdoors a small amount at a time. Avoid breathing the fumes or smoke from it.
 
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Burning it in a garbage facility would be better. But I do get your concern about these substance's as putting them in your garbage bag is a option that will leave to much room for someone accidentely being exposed to the chemicals. Don't want that kinda shit. But throwing it in a river is not an option imo.

Can't you deliver it at a enviromental-polluting-collecting-park, anonymouse. And label the shit as a hazardess Just ask the guy's over there how they want packed, they will help you. Just keep your id to yourself and act inconspicious. Just don't pour it in the water. It will hurt the baby fish!
 
Just have to mention that it seems Amazon is selling sodium sulfide (probably to individuals too, not only companies). The mercuric chloride salt turns to insoluble mercury sulfide when added to a water solution of Na2S. Just make sure not to add any acids (vinegar, citric acid, etc.) to the sodium sulfide or the resulting mercury sulfide. Acid causes a liberation of toxic hydrogen sulfide gas and turns the mercury ions back to water soluble form. Also, don't dump the resulting precipitate anywhere where it can get in contact with acids.

Edit: Anyone who's worked in a laboratory more recently, please comment if this looks like a bad idea, or if precipitating it as HgSO4 sounds better...
 
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polymath said:
Just have to mention that it seems Amazon is selling sodium sulfide (probably to individuals too, not only companies). The mercuric chloride salt turns to insoluble mercury sulfide when added to a water solution of Na2S. Just make sure not to add any acids (vinegar, citric acid, etc.) to the sodium sulfide or the resulting mercury sulfide. Acid causes a liberation of toxic hydrogen sulfide gas and turns the mercury ions back to water soluble form. Also, don't dump the resulting precipitate anywhere where it can get in contact with acids.

Edit: Anyone who's worked in a laboratory more recently, please comment if this looks like a bad idea, or if precipitating it as HgSO4 sounds better...
Click to expand...
Without any Chemistry background atm on the subject. Isn't it just safer to get rid of it anonymouse via a municipal waste management location?
 
emkee_reinvented said:
Without any Chemistry background atm on the subject. Isn't it just safer to get rid of it anonymouse via a municipal waste management location?
Click to expand...

That's definitely a better option if it is by any means possible. And dumping it in the river without doing anything to it first is definitely the worst option. The factories upstream are very unlikely to dump a total of 25 grams of mercury in that river even during a period of several years...
 
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Just to elaborate on how to proceed with the HgCl2 and Na2S if you decide to make it less harmful that way:

Suppose you have a 1 liter bottle of 3% sodium sulfide solution. Then there's a total of about 30 grams of Na2S in it. You need at least about half of the amount of HgCl2, measured in grams (making 12.5 g), so that is more than enough. You first move about 1/4 of the Na2S solution to another container. Then pour the HgCl2 crystals in the partially full Na2S solution bottle through a funnel. After that, wash the empty HgCl2 plastic bottle carefully with the Na2S solution you moved to the other container, and pour the stuff in the other Na2S bottle through the same funnel so that no mercuric chloride crystals remain stuck on the funnel. Then close the sodium sulfide bottle that has the HgS precipitate in it, and bury it somewhere with the funnel and the empty HgCl2 crystal bottle. Choose a place where you don't expect anyone to go digging. If someone finds it, in that form it will not kill them unless they do exactly the wrong things with it.

But definitely take the chemicals to waste management if possible.
 
panigale said:
Hello,

I would not want get in too many details but suppose hypothetically if you have these chemicals (listed below) do you think throwing them in a dirty river where all chemical wastes from factories go is an alright idea ?
Also if the listed chemicals were hypothetically in your bedroom for past 3 years in their original packing sealed, do you think it give you cancer or something ?

(I hope I am not breaking any rule. Forgive me if I did)

×Mercuric Chloride
×Paraformaldehyde
×Dimethyl Formamide
×Nitromethane
×p-Bezoquinone
Click to expand...

Overall, I would recommend against dumping it in the river. Because you'd simply be adding to the problem. The fact that the river is already polluted doesn't make it right to knowingly do something that's going to make the issue worse. Even if only by a little.

If you flush it down the toilet, that's an even worse idea imo. Because a lot of cities have sewage treatment plants, so the graywater gets recycled. Which might even end up resulting in people actually drinking small amounts of the chemicals. But dumping it in a river is also a bad idea imo.

Burying it in the way that people here suggested is better. But it's still not ideal. Definitely take it to waste management if you can. Would be safer for you that way as well. Because those are some very toxic chemicals that you really wouldn't want to be handling if you don't know what you're doing.

Also, and you don't need to answer this, what were you using them for in the first place?
 
Paraformaldehyde will gradually decompose to regular formaldehyde, and then to formic acid and finally carbon dioxide if it ends up somewhere like a river. This doesn't necessarily mean that it couldn't harm fish or animals if a large amount of it is concentrated somewhere...

The para-benzoquinone and dimethylformamide are a bit problematic. Both evaporate too slowly to be disposed of by evaporating or burning, and if you do something like put them in conc. NaOH solution it's possible that the decomposition products from that reaction are even more toxic.

To be honest, it probably doesn't do much harm to just keep the chemicals in their original containers until you know how to properly get rid of them. They don't "leak out and cause cancer", or anything like that, and it shouldn't be a terrible crime in any democratic country to own small amounts of those chemicals. Just make sure to keep them out of reach of children.
 
LandsUnknown said:
What are these chemicals even for?
Click to expand...

Someone could possibly claim that the nitromethane and mercuric chloride are precursors for phenethylamine synthesis (via nitrostyrene, Al amalgam reduction), but there's nothing obviously related to something illegal.
 
polymath said:
Someone could possibly claim that the nitromethane and mercuric chloride are precursors for phenethylamine synthesis (via nitrostyrene, Al amalgam reduction), but there's nothing obviously related to something illegal.
Click to expand...
So basicaly there is no reason to not get rid of it via a acceptable route. Or wording the other way around to get rid of it a unacceptable route. Like dumping it in the river claiming "yeah but they did it first!" or putting it in the garbage bag.

So Panigale do some effort and dump your shit the right way! ;)
 
Contact your local waste management services/garbage collection agency. They likely will have a website that your can visit.
On the website, look for guidelines on how correctly dispose of hazardous materials.

Contacting Poison Control might be a good idea, too.

Also, a vendor that sells such products should be able to provide information on proper disposal.
 
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