# Wait, how do you even dispose of "old" substrate??



## merakjinsei (Apr 4, 2021)

I have seen it mentioned that you should replace your substrate every 3 months if its not a bioactive situation, but what are you supposed to do with the old substrate?? I presume dispose of it, but how? I dont see this brought up.

I rent an apartment in a city center, so I can't just dump it outside. I don't have my own car or certain access to one, so it would be difficult to drive it anywhere. Can you just put it in a dumpster? I've seen it mentioned that trash pickup isn't ok with "soil", and my apartment doesn't have a yard waste bin.

What do you do with your old substrate, and when? What are common practices? What would you do in my situation?


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## LizardStudent (Apr 4, 2021)

https://www.tegutalk.com/threads/substrate-question.20958/#post-177609 

Here's a recent thread discussing how often to change substrate, I've never heard of someone doing it every three months. When you have an enclosure that holds about 1.5 tons of dirt, that just seems very excessive and unnecessary to me. If you have to change it I would just huck into the dumpster if you don't really have other options, but personally I really just spot clean (and use bioactive) and hardly ever do a full substrate change, I just don't find it neccessary when she doesn't really go to the bathroom in her enclosure


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## merakjinsei (Apr 4, 2021)

Thank you, extremely reassuring to know! and thank you for the link, haha


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## Debita (Apr 8, 2021)

No need to sweat over it - if you have to spot clean....a trash bag in the dumpster is the best place for it. I don't know who started the 3 month thing, but they probably don't have a Tegu. Also - I don't use soil. I do use Repti-bark, but my adult Tegu almost never digs in it because he has a wooden hide that he is far more fond of. I think soil is OK, but it's dirtier than what I use. I like the Repti-Bark - keeps things very clean...but that's also because my Skully doesn't go to the bathroom in his enclosure. He goes on my bathroom floor.


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