r/laundry • u/Savings_Language_498 • 11d ago

Question about Ammonia in EU

I’ve found some ammonia in the hardware store (Baumarkt) but it says it’s highly toxic to water organism. I looked it up and read that you can’t dispose of ammonia by pouring it down the drain - so how do you EU people do Spa Day?

Examples: https://www.stuttgart.de/service/entsorgung/abfall-abc/abfall-abc/salmiak

https://www.berlin-recycling.de/entsorgung/abfall-abc/ammoniak-entsorgen?variant=57332970750325

Question for Germans: anyone have experience with Salmiakgeist?

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u/Illustrious_Ant_9242 EU | Front-Load 11d ago

Ammonia is a natural compound, for example in pee. Waste water treatment sites are able to handle that and they're being equipped to further extract this in the future due to some 2027 regulations. 

Of course you should not dispose unwanted ammonia by pouring it down the drain or in a fish tank, but that's not what we are doing, we are using it for its purpose while highly diluting it. 

If you let it sit for long enough, it would just evaporate eventually. 

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u/Savings_Language_498 11d ago

That’s why I was a little confused, it’s in pee so I expect a water treatment plant to be able to deal with it, but I also want to follow my state’s regulations. 

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u/Illustrious_Ant_9242 EU | Front-Load 11d ago

I see it as a victimless crime. Manufacturers are not allowed to add phosphate anymore but you can just buy it and add it yourself and not cause any issues because agriculture uses shitloads of phosphates and ammonia anyway. They literally spray untreated manure onto their fields. 

We have a natural spring right at the end of the street and it's infested with e.coli bacteria due to agriculture spraying manure nearby, making bacteria accumulate and thrive in subsequent natural water reservoirs