Bathtub recycling concerns

Discussion in 'Designing, building, making and powering your life' started by Mirrabooka, Mar 4, 2015.

  1. Mirrabooka

    Mirrabooka Junior Member

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    I have recently found myself wondering about recycling old bathtubs in sequence to build a constructed wetland to purify Blackwater or greywater. However at least one website warns that old bathtub surfaces leak LEAD. I wonder what other have found in their research on this contamination issue. What are the implications for the bathtub worm farm design

    See the online Lead Action newsletter Spring 1996
     
  2. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    Hadn't heard of this before ... thanks for the heads-up!
    This article states that
    It also mentions "lead check swabs" https://leadcheck.com/ Could you test your bathtubs (or any you are trying to acquire) for lead using these swabs?
     
  3. floot

    floot Junior Member

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    hello mirrabooka....

    It seems an age since i posted here.

    There are bathtubs and bathtubs... probably about 400 concoctions of modern society. I think your idea has merit... a lot of merit. Fact is, there were bathtubs that used some lead in construction but how many of them are out there today?.... Just get someone to test the provenance of the materials you wish to use..... and go for it.

    Bath tubs have been made from a huge array of materials.... just ask a scrap merchant what you have.... and I am telling you if it is lead or copper... he will buy them from you and give you, probably safe' alternative.


    cheers floot
     
  4. sweetpea

    sweetpea Junior Member

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  5. Mirrabooka

    Mirrabooka Junior Member

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    So, finally, after a bath tub a neighbour kindly gave me had been sitting there in the backyard, never used for that work farm, never used for that grey water system, never used for composting Scoth thistle, finally I got to the hardware store, bought the lead testing kit, held my breath while I applied the liquid oozing from the tip of the little tube, and....

    ..........bright pink, as positive as can be for lead.

    What a relief I haven't been feeding compost made there to pregnant family members and friends...
     
  6. Grasshopper

    Grasshopper Senior Member

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    was it chipped worn old?
     
  7. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    Wow, Mirrabooka, thanks for posting your results. This is good info to have going forward.
     
  8. Mirrabooka

    Mirrabooka Junior Member

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  9. Mirrabooka

    Mirrabooka Junior Member

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    The bath is an elegant old bath, in very good condition, perhaps 1940s or 1950s, with the classic squarer styling, beautiful green....now free to good home!
     
  10. Grasshopper

    Grasshopper Senior Member

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    You wouldnt trust plastic lining it or painting in a rubberized pond sealer first. ?
     

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