Using and Disposing of Simple Green
 

I'm using Simple Green for degreasing, since you guys seem to give it your blessing. Two questions:

1. The label says to rinse the parts with water after use. "Don't let Simple Green dry on the parts," it says. Do you all do that? Living near the ocean, where everything rusts, it's hard to get over my feeling the Water Is The Enemy. For example, today I soaked my freewheel in SG, cleaned off grease, and then took it outside, held it in my hand, and hosed it off (followed by lubrication). Does that sound right to you?

2. The label says things like "non-toxic," "biodegradable," and "OK to keep in reach of children." Can I dispose of it by dumping it in my toilet (and flushing it into my septic tank)?

Thanks!

1. Yup, that's exactly what I do.

2. I'm not sure it's so "non-toxic" that you could drink it but flushing is probably ok.

As a side note I ran out of Simple Green recently and tried soaking my chain in a little gas for the lawnmower. The results were really amazing (even better than SG) but then there's the disposal problem...

It goes great in Mojitos

SG may be OK to to put in the sewer or whatever,but what your cleaning off isn't.

Hey mp123, gas works great (its what my dad used on the farm for years to degrease everything, including his hands) but keep in mind that benzene (approx. 2% of gas) is a known human carcinogen.

Right. OTOH, the amount of old grease or oil is probably pretty small. What do you do with your leftover SG?

Keep it out of your septic tank.

I guess I'll have a can for the waste, and periodically take it to the hazardous liquids disposal place.

Gasoline should not be used where it'll contact skin on a regular basis. A mineral spirit based solvent like Varsol or hardware store mineral spirits paint thinner is better but you should still use solvent resistant Nitrile gloves when using it for things like cleaning chains. NO Petrochemical (gasoline, Varsol, mineral spirits, oils, greases, etc, etc) are good for your skin or internal organs over the long haul. Try to minimize contact with them by using gloves or barrier creams.

Getting back to the SG issue. The reason I don't use SG for cleaning is both because I need to get rid of it and also that it needs to be rinsed off the parts so that there is no long term rusting due to the residue. Once I hit something like a chain with a hose to rinse it then I need to spray it with something like WD40 to displace the water and then I need to oil it. That's adding a lot of steps and products. I'd rather just wash the chain using mineral spirits and my chain cleaning gizmo and pour the dirty solvent into a pickle jar to settle so I can reuse it something like 8 to 10 times over until it won't settle to a clear liquid on top of the grunge. Only then do I need to take it to a recycling depot for paints and solvents. That's pretty good life for a solvent compared to using SG in a one shot sort of deal and then rinsing and then WD40 and THEN oil.

At least I think so.

I figure water just doesn't belong on chains either. That's why I use Brake Klean on a nappy shop towel. Handy aerosol can with a tube spout. Doesn't take much at all and (flammable) spillage is not a possibility. bk

"Getting back to the SG issue." QUOTE.


+1


Regards,
J T

Also, there have been a lot of garges burned down from fires started when people were cleaning parts with gasoline. Not that the parts cleaning caused the fires, but gasoline so volatile that the smallest spark will set it off. For parts cleaning, mineral spirits, kerosene, or diesel fuel are much safer.

A BIG +1 on that....

Thanks, BC. Do you always pour it back into the same pickle jar, or does that stir up the prior grunge too much?

I use pedros orange peel citrus degreaser. I like the smell better than simple green, and it works great. Sure a bit pricy, but I dont need much of it. I put it in a spray bottle and spray little amounts where i need it, or use just a small amount in a coke bottle to clean a chain...works great! I generally water it down good and dump it..prob not the best idea but its what i do..

Because?


http://www.dawginc.com/industrial-cl...en_faq1.php#16

I "decant" it out of the pickle jar and into the gizmo. Then I pour the gizmo out into a second picklejar (wider mouth jars obviously work best). If there's any settled stuff left in the first jar I'll decant all of it along with a little grunge into the newly filled jar and swish up the grunge in the first jar and pour that into a container that will eventually be used to transfer the whole lot to the paint recycling depot. So at any one time I've got two jars and a jug of grunge soup going. It's not as bad or complicated as it sounds.

If you use one jar just pour out the gizmo into a bowl and then pour the dirty stuff back into the clean stuff. IN a couple of days it'll have settled out again.

I never mentioned it but I find that I need to do three washings with the gizmo with a paper towel to blot away the dirty solvent on the chain. The final of the three is done using a little bit of fresh clean mineral spirits. With a little going into the jug each time and a little coming from the fresh supply it all works out quite well.

With this method and having to keep somewhere around 10 motorcycle and bicycle chains cleaned I find that a gallon of mineral spirits lasts me a good 6 or more months. And that's even using it as well for some small parts cleaning of all these vehicles as well. So you can see that overall it's pretty frugal. If you're only using it on a bicycle or two and don't have all the other hobbys that I do I don't see why a gallon of the stuff won't last you easily a year of chain and parts cleaning if you only use what you need.

Oh, and the parts cleaning spirits goes into the settling jar as well. So it gets used over and over again as well.

+1 Simple Green is highly overrated and not really all that environmentally friendly. The only thing "green" about it is the name.

A tablespoon of solvent (paint thinner, kerosine, gasoline) does a much better job than a cup of Simple Green.

Probably the best use of simple green is to spray on grease spots on you clothes before you throw them into the laundry. I also tend to use Simple Green on things where solvents might be too much like on painted parts of the frame, etc. However, for greasy, grimey drive-train parts, solvent wins hands down.