Old chlorine tablets may react violently when they become wet or mix with other products. Leave them in their original labeled container and call a household hazardous waste program.
Do not put tablets in trash, dissolve them for disposal, or transfer them into a bag. A damaged, wet, hot, or fuming container needs emergency advice.
Choose the Route From the Container’s Condition
Dry Tablets in an Intact Container
Read the “Storage and Disposal” section on the product label. Chlorine tablets can contain different active ingredients, so directions for another product may be unsafe.
Call your city or county household hazardous waste program. Ask whether it accepts pool chemicals from residents and whether you need an appointment.
Hillsborough County, Florida, accepts residential pool chemicals at designated sites and excludes business waste. Your local program may use different rules.
A pool store may be another option only if it confirms acceptance. Do not arrive without calling, and do not donate old or questionable tablets to another pool owner.
Wet, Damaged, Hot, Bulging, or Fuming Container
Do not open, move, reseal, or add anything to the container. Keep people and pets away and avoid breathing fumes.
Move away and report a fire or hazardous chemical release from a safe place. Call 911 if someone collapses, has a seizure, has trouble breathing, or cannot be awakened.
Do not carry a reacting or damaged container in your vehicle. Tell responders the product name and active ingredient from a safe distance if you can read the label.
Unlabeled or Mixed Material
Treat the contents as unknown. Do not smell, test, combine, or repackage them.
Tell the hazardous waste program that the identity is uncertain. It may require a different appointment or direct you to emergency services.
Store Tablets While You Arrange Disposal
- Keep the original lid closed.
- Store the container in the cool, dry, ventilated place required by its label.
- Keep it away from water, heat, flame, fuel, oil, paint, acids, cleaners, and organic material.
- Keep children and pets out of the storage area.
- Do not stack another chemical on the container.
The EPA pool-chemical safety alert describes fires and toxic gas releases caused by moisture, contamination, and mixing incompatible products.
Old chemicals should not be mixed with fresh ones, even when both labels name the same type. Partial decomposition or contamination can make the combination react.
Transport Only With Receiver Instructions
Ask the facility how it wants intact pool-chemical containers carried. Follow its directions about separation, vehicle placement, and quantity limits.
Keep the container upright and secured. Do not transport chlorine tablets beside acids, fuel, oil, cleaners, or other pool chemicals.
Drive directly to the confirmed facility. Do not leave pool chemicals in a parked vehicle.
What Not to Do
- Do not put chlorine tablets in household trash or curbside recycling.
- Do not pour or flush them into a drain, toilet, storm sewer, soil, or waterway.
- Do not add water to tablets for disposal.
- Do not mix tablets with bleach, acids, ammonia, shock, bromine, or another chlorine product.
- Do not burn, crush, sweep, vacuum, or deliberately dry damaged tablets.
A product label may allow use in a properly maintained pool. Use is not a disposal recipe, and you should not add unwanted tablets merely to empty a container.
Ask a pool professional whether the intact product is suitable for your pool and current chemistry. Follow the exact label if you choose legitimate use.
If Someone Is Exposed
Move away from fumes. Call 911 if someone collapses, has a seizure, has trouble breathing, or cannot be awakened.
For other US exposures, call Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222 or use webPOISONCONTROL. Follow the product label while you wait for advice.
Household and Business Waste Are Different
Household collection sites often reject pool-service, apartment, school, or business waste. Those generators should use their workplace plan and a qualified hazardous waste contractor.