this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
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Chemistry

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Forgive me, I know very little of chemistry.

The sewage pipe burst in the basement of the building I live in and my unit has been filled with, going by the symptoms, "healthy" 10-50 ppm levels of H2S and more stuff and the services have certainly been taking their time fixing it. In an act of desperation, I bought some bentonite clay in local pet store, put several kilograms of it into bin and started watering it since I read it could act as H2S adsorbent. I did that for a while. I also sprinkled sodium bicarbonate over it in case SO2+H20 was a reaction that occurred. First day I did it it worked great, but I'm not sure if the following times were anything but placebo. Yes, my mind didn't work very well when I did all of that.

I understand now that the only sane way to deal with this situation is to escape location. However, it occurs to me that if H2S simply adheres to the bentonite clay, somehow disturbing it will release it and I'm now left with several kilograms of hazardous material.

So, how do I dispose of it? Can I simply throw it away into urban trash collection system? Can I divide it into fist-sized chunks and throw it away over time? Can I safely cure H2S out of it?

Normally, I'd love to call my local hazardous materials disposal authority and have professionals handle it but I'm in Russia and doing such a fun call these times is likely to launch a chain of events where I end up somewhere in the trenches. Not an outcome I wish to bring about.

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[–] alzymologist@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 months ago

If it is stinky, it would get stinkier in an indoors bin once food waste gets in and starts fermenting and heating up; those rooms are not well ventilated usually.

That is, I'm assuming you have many bucketfuls of the stuff.

Dacha is perfect solution imo. Latrines have same stuff in them naturally, you won't make a difference. H2S is natural product of biowaste decay in anaerobic condition, and it is itself biodegradable. If you own the soil, you could also use it as soil modifier if you know what you are doing. Or pile it up, rains and bacteria will deal with soon.