@perennialfan, your question and concern is exactly right, strong cleaners can be harmful to your septic. It's a good idea to use cleaners as kimmq suggests, and old 'homemade solutions' may work for you. Vinegar is an old standby, some people use hydrogen peroxide (both diluted for safety of course). (Note: I'm not referring to plain old soaps as dangerous here.)

Note: things like vinegar and hydrogen peroxide also kill bacteria when concentrated, but get broken down by bacteria and are basically harmless when heavily diluted.

Stuff marked 'anti-bacterial' and chlorine-based are much more problematic (I believe the main clorox and lysol solutions have chlorine in them as their active agents).

That said: don't freak out and think you have to switch everything overnight (unless your septic is already having problems). Septic tanks are pretty big and dilution of even strong cleaners in a septic reduces its impact a lot. My suggestion would be to experiment and substitute to reduce your use of those cleaners, especially those that go down the drain, hopefully eventually to zero.

And if you have a few household tasks that occasionally need a spoonful of clorox or whatever and the substitutes don't work for you, it's not the end of the world. A drop of bleach on a rag or in a bucket of water to clean something is different than pouring a bottle down your drain (which would definitely be bad).

[Note: others will have stronger opinions on how much is acceptable, that's fine - I'm agreeing wholeheartedly that using less of these strong cleaners is a good idea.]

Side note, my understanding is that most simple soaps like dishwashing soap - but NOT those marked anti-bacterial - are not problems themselves. The concern is about strong chemical cleaning products, like bleaches, and those that include special anti-bacterial compounds.

Rather than just receiving the well intended advice of forum participants, it might be helpful to read this publication from Cornell University that outlines exactly what can be and what should not be flushed into your septic system. If used in a normal household manner (that means according to label directions and not excessively), bleach, Lysol, dish soap, laundry detergent, toilet cleaners, etc. are all safely dissolved or neutralized by a septic system without soil or groundwater contamination.

Household Chemicals and Your Septic System.

Excellent link GG.

I would agree with what the above posters said also: my gut feeling is that small amounts shouldn't be a problem. There are classes of chemicals (as others alluded to):

Highly Reactive - Includes bleach and peroxide. They react with any kind of organic matter (living or not) and go away in the process. Unless you're adding a huge amount they will not be a problem.

Detergents and Soaps - Action is to be a surfactant (suspending dirt and grease) rather than kill microbes. Biodegrade but more slowly than the highly reactive stuff.

Anti Bacterial Agents - Added to hand soaps, etc. IMO, best to avoid these whether you have a septic tank or not. Certain ones are being taken off the market. If you keep things reasonably clean with detergents you don't need them on a regular basis. They promote resistant bacteria anyway. I'm not sure about their persistence in sewage plant or septic tank but they do not kill by reacting the same way bleach and peroxide do so if they persist they could do ongoing damage.

I certainly don't want to sound 'overreactive' ))) - modest amounts okay. Since most drinking water is treated with chlorine (bleach), it's clearly not that dangerous in small amounts. I think still good to reduce the amounts, but more a question of moderation.

I once had a stoppage in my septic drainage system...back in 1980. It seemed that the slot outlets in the pipes [plastic tile] were plugged. I immediately began using some added bacterial and such monthly and probably cut down on the grease being dumped down the drain....important.

Soap and grease can make a goopy substance.

You ever see the vids of them cleaning the London sewers? I forget what it is, but they have a name for the giant blobs of soapy grease that clogs the sewer tunnels. It's gross!

All good points here about the septic system. However, I don' think you have to worry about plants in your soil, other than possibly trees. But trees have massive root systems, so even if there was a problem in the area around the septic tank they would have plenty of other roots in unaffected soil. And shrubs, flowers, and vegetables wouldn't be affected at all - they live in the top 1 foot of soil.

i remember when i was deep into beermaking, after bottling I would take the carboys out on the lawn, put a tbsp of clorox in and a gallon of water, and swish them clean for storage. when pouring the liquid (which had some yeast in it, so not just water and clorox) all the earthworms would come out of the ground wriggling and obviously in the throes of death or at least great pain(I stopped soon after)

We have a county wide sewage treatment system here, although not everyone is connected yet, and the operators have to add bacteria to the initial settling pond because of the anti bacterial products people dump into the waste stream.

Many years ago we could have the septic tank pumped once every 5 to 7 years, but it is now recommended that the tans be pumped every 3 years because of the anti bacterial soaps people are using which tend to kill the bacteria the are supposed to digest the waste put there.

"Fatberg" is the term you're thinking of from the London sewers.

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/fatbergs-fat-cities-sewers-wet-wipes-science/

They're all over, actually, and not just grease, but those wet wipes and other stuff. The London Fatberg that started all the media coverage was 800 ft. long and weighed 130 metric tons. One. Hundred. Thirty. Metric. Tons. Pour your grease into a can and either throw it in the trash or make bird blocks with it. And enough with the wipes. They don't decompose - just like the tea bags, they have synthetic fibers.

glib, In 1999 I had a new submersible water pump installed in my well. The well guy put some chlorine in the well to sanitize and then pumped some water out into the yard. Wow! There seemed to be hundreds or maybe thousands of worms surface.

When the chemicals are dilute to begin with, the microbes have a better chance of surviving en masse. Strong oxidizing agents (bleach, peroxide, perborate) eventually get neutralized. Same with caustics (ammonia, clogged drain openers like Drano). With enough microbial activity, most organohalogens can get broken down somewhat. Detergents are more destructive and persistent than soaps...but they're indipensable cleaners IMO.

High phosphate items might cause different problems (too much growth, wrong kind of growth, eutrophication). It's much less prevalent nowdays, but the old strong versions of Lime-Away and CLR for hard water deposits relied on a strong phosphoric acid solution. Most laundry detergents use much less phosphate now compared to 1 or 2 decades ago. There's some phosphate/phosphorus in pee, but not huge amounts at the percent level. My preferred hard water stain & calcium remover uses citric acid as the active ingredient (it's not volatile like vinegar so it doesn't spread in the air and attack nearby non-target materials, including olfactory receptors & eyes haha).