15 year old water Butt disposal.

missk9

We moved into the home in 2007, there is bushes at the bottom of the garden we never touched, they gave good privacy. More recently we have been cutting them back and this has revealed a big water butt at the end of the garden. It's not connected to anything and I believe there is water in it. It must be very old and stagnant. 
What is yhe best way to safely dispose of this? I'm presuming the water could contain nasty spores etc. 
Many thanks 

tacpot12

The water could contain all sorts of contamination, but it is likely to be highly diluted. You will be ok to pump or drain the water to wherever your rain gutters dump their water. 

The butt can be cut into peices if it is too large to move in one peice. The peices can be disposed of at the local tip/household recycling centre. If it is round, it might roll to the kerbside and be collected as a large item by your local council. 

Wearing a mask and gloves while handling it is probably a wise precaution.  

Misslayed

Do you really need to get rid of it? I found an ancient, metal, barrel-shaped butt in my overgrown garden, which very possibly had been here since the house was built in 1929! Mr. M gave it a really good scrub, two coats of Hammerite inside and out, mounted it on some bricks and inserted a tap - the trickiest part! We bought a rubber dustbin lid and cut holes in the middle and the appropriate place for a down pipe from the greenhouse roof. Completely fit for purpose!

-taff

Or tell someone on freecycle or fbmp that it's theirs and someone may come and fetch it off you.

It's unlikely to be harmful unless someone was dumping petrol or diesel or some other nasty in it, so check before you empty.

FreeBear

-taff said: It's unlikely to be harmful unless someone was dumping petrol or diesel or some other nasty in it, so check before you empty.

Or made from asbestos cement. Really depends on how old this water butt is.

twopenny

Indeed there may be wildlife in there - frogs, newts etc.

Just drain and do one of the above.

Pretty sure it won't be something horrible in there.

That it's not connected maybe that like me they use surplus collected water to fill it for use later.

-taff

FreeBear said:

-taff said: It's unlikely to be harmful unless someone was dumping petrol or diesel or some other nasty in it, so check before you empty.

Or made from asbestos cement. Really depends on how old this water butt is.

Well they haven't actually said what it's made of yet...

badmemory

It could be like mine which I suspect is full of moss from the roof.  One day I will need to deal with that plastic monstrosity but I have no idea how.