Opinion On Soap Batter Disposal

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KristaY

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In the last week I've made 10 batches of peacock swirl soap for a friend's wedding so I've used many squirt bottles of batter. I've found it's easiest to rinse the batter out as soon as I'm done with the batch but wondered how to avoid putting it down my drains. I decided to pour the rinse water into an empty gallon water jug. I now have two gallon jugs filled with soap batter water. Here's my question: do I seal up the jugs and put them into the trash or is it okay to dump out into an unused area of my property? I'd guess each bottle had about an ounce of batter left in the bottle then I filled each bottle twice with hot tap water to get all the batter out. Is it safe to dump in the natural vegetation or should I just seal and put it out for normal trash collection?
 
I've only been soaping for a little over 6 months so I am probably wrong but if you can handle a bar of soap after a few days, then any left over batter should be safe to handle after a similar timeframe. S the batter should be safe to put on your land from that perspective. Oil left from superfatting might cause a problem though. I guess it could burn plants if it was sunny.

In Australia we have water resistant soil in some places and apply detergent-like surfactants to get the soil to absorb water. Providing these surfactants aren't overused and go into waterways or have phosphates they are helpful. Recycling grey water from the washing machine is a popular way of achieving this. So perhaps the batter would be useful if watered down and applied that way.

My next thought is to incorporate some into either herbicide or insecticide.

A home made herbicide can be made from vinegar, salt and detergent. White oil for surface pests is simply oil, a little milk and some detergent. I haven't tried these with cp soap yet but I can't see why it wouldn't work.

Finally, if you let the batter cure so it is gentler, then soak it to soften, it actually makes a pretty decent liquid soap (maybe not the prettiest but it washes just fine). I use off-cuts, leftovers and shavings from my unscented recipes this way to keep a bottle of hand wash in the kitchen.

Hope that gives you some ideas for what to do with it.

KoffeeKat
 
Thanks for the replies, Shunt and KoffeeKat! I decided to dump one into an area of my yard that has really hardy natural vegetation. I'll keep an eye on it to see what happens.

KoffeeKat, that's a great idea about the insecticide! I have a tree that's being invaded by some tiny bug so need to make some up anyway. I'm definitely going to give it a try using soap batter. I usually use Dawn dishwashing liquid only because that's what the local nursery people suggest. I don't know if there will be a difference between my soap and a syndet but I'll find out! :p
 
I imagine if you used animal fat then carnivores may be attracted to it, but as this was diluted I'm sure it would have done no harm. If you don't have a septic tank, I would advise just putting it down the drain then flushing with lots of water to dilute it even more. If it's a septic tank I would me more wary as you don't want to upset the biological balance inside.
 
I'm no chemist, I'm sure there are others here who will chime in with a more knowledgeable answer, but I would expect that the saponification process would still take place, even when diluted with water, so why not wait a few days for it to be complete, then shake up the bottle and use the contents as liquid soap? No?
 
I imagine if you used animal fat then carnivores may be attracted to it, but as this was diluted I'm sure it would have done no harm. If you don't have a septic tank, I would advise just putting it down the drain then flushing with lots of water to dilute it even more. If it's a septic tank I would me more wary as you don't want to upset the biological balance inside.

I don't use animal fats so I'm good there but I do have a septic tank. Good point about upsetting the balance. I hadn't thought about that but now I will! I was primarily concerned about clogging up my pipes.

I'm no chemist, I'm sure there are others here who will chime in with a more knowledgeable answer, but I would expect that the saponification process would still take place, even when diluted with water, so why not wait a few days for it to be complete, then shake up the bottle and use the contents as liquid soap? No?

There's another good idea, navigator! No reason I can't put it in a bottle by the garage wash sink. Once I get done mixing up pesticide, I'll give it a try. Thanks everyone for the suggestions!
 
I'll bet it's the salt they are attracted to. I brine my turkeys for Thanksgiving and don't want that much salt entering my septic system. The deer, elk, raccoons, foxes, and porcupines all go crazy for the spot where I dump it.
 
I use a very weak soap/water solution as a spray on my houseplants to kill pests...I let it sit a few days til it's saponified. I use a stronger solution as a weed killer. And if I have a lot, I just dump it in the burn pile. We live out in the country with a lot of critters around, and I haven't seen any animals that are attracted to it, so I'm not sure about that part...
 

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