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One our grids have been a bit slow to empty of late and well sorry to say a bit smelly "Yuk".

I remembered that when I was a kid my dad chucked a load of really hot caustic soda down the drain and it worked a treat.

Now my dilemma

Caring about the planet as I do and reading the label of the Caustic bottle am I really allowed to pour this stuff down the drain.

As far as I am aware the drain in question is a rainwater drain that probably goes of to a local stream with wildlife or drinking water implications.

The bottle talks about drains it does not specify dirty water or fresh water.

Suggestions please!!!!

Hiya Zappy,
When you say "grid", do you mean like a normal surface water to mains waste,or more of a soak-away?

At last I can find a use for my recently-gained knowledge from the choose-a-page challenge.

This works for household drains - yours sounds like a bigger problem, but the principle should be the same. Mix baking soda with vinegar (loads of froth) and pour that into the drain. Follow it up straight away with boiling water. Wait and ...Bingo.

Caustic soda, by the way, does begin to break down on contact with a lot of water. I wouldn't fancy being a fish just beneath the drain outlet, though.

Like a rainwater of your roof and into a little grid type drain. Caustic Soda may break down in water but I do worry about the fishes, frogs, newts, cattle drinking etc.

I like your recipe and I will give it a go. However dont you think it is a bit shady that this stuff says drains but not which type of drains?

Or is safe to use in a freshwater drain and this is just Andy's planet paranioa?

Hello again!
MKG's recepi is good,but acetic acid(vinegar) or any other chemical(caustic soda e.g.) will be so diluted by the time it hits a water source(river),it really should not make any difference.Trust me,there are far more worse things dumped down drains.
"Pumpy"