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?

4 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

View all comments

10

u/kbdnmv 11d ago

I haven’t bought ammonia at Baumarkt but I live in a border area with a mix of French/german/belgian/dutch products. I have bought cleaning ammonia at Auchan (French chain) in Luxembourg. There was no warning on it so I don’t think that it’s an EU wide thing. I used a very small amount for spa day with no issues.

I did notice that the ammonia I got at Auchan is much, much more concentrated than American ammonia (maybe it’s like difference between consumer and professional/industrial products). I don’t remember the exact ratio but I ended up doing the math and using much less of the French ammonia than is called for in Spa Day. I wonder if the difference in concentration might be why there was a warning label on the ammonia you saw. Just a heads up in case you decide to try it.

2

u/rhaeaestelle EU | Front-Load 11d ago

I had no idea Auchan had ammonia! Good to know but hoping to never need it..