Borax has not been available as a consumer product in the UK since
2010 (I think). You can still buy it from lab suppliers but at
reagent-grade prices.
Adam Funk wrote:
Borax has not been available as a consumer product in the UK since
2010 (I think). You can still buy it from lab suppliers but at
reagent-grade prices.
Whether legal or not, it's available as a household cleaner (or a slime activator) from here
<https://www.boraxdirect.co.uk>
On 30/06/2025 13:25, Andy Burns wrote:
Adam Funk wrote:
Borax has not been available as a consumer product in the UK since
2010 (I think). You can still buy it from lab suppliers but at
reagent-grade prices.
Whether legal or not, it's available as a household cleaner (or a slime
activator) from here
<https://www.boraxdirect.co.uk>
Surprising as most of the stuff on offer today is Borax substitute.
Typically some variant of sodium carbonate/bicarbonate/percabonate.
The notable exception being "slime activator" which requires the borate
ion to work in combination with PVA glue. Sold for use by children.
I hadn't noticed that it had disappeared. It is somewhat useful for hard water areas as an effective simple water softener and mild alkali.
Rather deadly to ants and termites but I have no idea why. Not very
toxic in humans and used to help preserve caviar (except in the USA).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borax#Uses
It's Substance of Very High Concern candidate listing was in 2010.
Since then it has been largely phased out.
Adam Funk wrote:
Borax has not been available as a consumer product in the UK since
2010 (I think). You can still buy it from lab suppliers but at
reagent-grade prices.
Whether legal or not, it's available as a household cleaner (or a slime activator) from here
<https://www.boraxdirect.co.uk>
On 2025-06-30, Andy Burns wrote:
Adam Funk wrote:
Borax has not been available as a consumer product in the UK since
2010 (I think). You can still buy it from lab suppliers but at
reagent-grade prices.
Whether legal or not, it's available as a household cleaner (or a slime
activator) from here
<https://www.boraxdirect.co.uk>
Thanks! I'm surprised I couldn't find that myself. (It's a bit more
expensive than in Walmart, but I'm only just close to running out of
the bag I bought in the UK before it became unavailable.)
On 2025-06-30, Martin Brown wrote:
On 30/06/2025 13:25, Andy Burns wrote:
Adam Funk wrote:
Borax has not been available as a consumer product in the UK since
2010 (I think). You can still buy it from lab suppliers but at
reagent-grade prices.
Whether legal or not, it's available as a household cleaner (or a slime
activator) from here
<https://www.boraxdirect.co.uk>
Surprising as most of the stuff on offer today is Borax substitute.
Typically some variant of sodium carbonate/bicarbonate/percabonate.
The "borax substitute" that I've seen in the UK is usually "borax
sesquicarbonate", a mixture of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate
(both of which I already have).
The notable exception being "slime activator" which requires the borate
ion to work in combination with PVA glue. Sold for use by children.
I hadn't noticed that it had disappeared. It is somewhat useful for hard
water areas as an effective simple water softener and mild alkali.
Rather deadly to ants and termites but I have no idea why. Not very
toxic in humans and used to help preserve caviar (except in the USA).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borax#Uses
It's Substance of Very High Concern candidate listing was in 2010.
Since then it has been largely phased out.
Borax has not been available as a consumer product in the UK since
2010 (I think). You can still buy it from lab suppliers but at
reagent-grade prices.
I'm trying to find out whether I can legally bring in a box (probably
about 1.5 kg) of borax from another country for personal household
use.
So I made a FOIA request to the Home Office (through What Do They
Know). They waited till the timer ran out and said "we don't know ---
try the Food Standards Agency". So I made the same request to the FSA
and they told me that E285 is not allowed in food except for caviar,
but they didn't know anyting about it for household use --- try the
Health and Safety Executive. So now I have a FOIA request pending with
the HSE.
I am baffled that it is not easy to establish with certainty whether
you can import a fairly well-known chemical? Shouldn't the Home Office
know exactly what products are and are not allowed as personal
imports?
On 30 Jun 2025 at 16:17:36 BST, "Adam Funk" <a24061a@ducksburg.com>
wrote:
On 2025-06-30, Andy Burns wrote:
Adam Funk wrote:
Borax has not been available as a consumer product in the UK since
2010 (I think). You can still buy it from lab suppliers but at
reagent-grade prices.
Whether legal or not, it's available as a household cleaner (or a
slime activator) from here
<https://www.boraxdirect.co.uk>
Thanks! I'm surprised I couldn't find that myself. (It's a bit more
expensive than in Walmart, but I'm only just close to running out of
the bag I bought in the UK before it became unavailable.)
Interestingly, that website has no company name or address or other identification apart from a mobile contact number and an email addrees.
On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 16:49:01 +0000, Roger Hayter wrote:
On 30 Jun 2025 at 16:17:36 BST, "Adam Funk" <a24061a@ducksburg.com>
wrote:
On 2025-06-30, Andy Burns wrote:
Whether legal or not, it's available as a household cleaner (or a
slime activator) from here
<https://www.boraxdirect.co.uk>
Thanks! I'm surprised I couldn't find that myself. (It's a bit more
expensive than in Walmart, but I'm only just close to running out of
the bag I bought in the UK before it became unavailable.)
Interestingly, that website has no company name or address or other
identification apart from a mobile contact number and an email addrees.
It says it is a ltd company so should be on the companies hose register.
On 30 Jun 2025 at 16:17:36 BST, "Adam Funk" <a24061a@ducksburg.com> wrote:
On 2025-06-30, Andy Burns wrote:
Adam Funk wrote:
Borax has not been available as a consumer product in the UK since
2010 (I think). You can still buy it from lab suppliers but at
reagent-grade prices.
Whether legal or not, it's available as a household cleaner (or a slime
activator) from here
<https://www.boraxdirect.co.uk>
Thanks! I'm surprised I couldn't find that myself. (It's a bit more
expensive than in Walmart, but I'm only just close to running out of
the bag I bought in the UK before it became unavailable.)
Interestingly, that website has no company name or address or other identification apart from a mobile contact number and an email addrees.
On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 16:49:01 +0000, Roger Hayter wrote:
On 30 Jun 2025 at 16:17:36 BST, "Adam Funk" <a24061a@ducksburg.com>
wrote:
On 2025-06-30, Andy Burns wrote:
Adam Funk wrote:
Borax has not been available as a consumer product in the UK since
2010 (I think). You can still buy it from lab suppliers but at
reagent-grade prices.
Whether legal or not, it's available as a household cleaner (or a
slime activator) from here
<https://www.boraxdirect.co.uk>
Thanks! I'm surprised I couldn't find that myself. (It's a bit more
expensive than in Walmart, but I'm only just close to running out of
the bag I bought in the UK before it became unavailable.)
Interestingly, that website has no company name or address or other
identification apart from a mobile contact number and an email addrees.
It says it is a ltd company so should be on the companies hose register.
On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 16:49:01 +0000, Roger Hayter wrote:
"Adam Funk" <a24061a@ducksburg.com> wrote:
On 2025-06-30, Andy Burns wrote:
Adam Funk wrote:
Borax has not been available as a consumer product in the UK since
2010 (I think). You can still buy it from lab suppliers but at
reagent-grade prices.
Whether legal or not, it's available as a household cleaner (or a
slime activator) from here
<https://www.boraxdirect.co.uk>
Thanks! I'm surprised I couldn't find that myself. (It's a bit more
expensive than in Walmart, but I'm only just close to running out of
the bag I bought in the UK before it became unavailable.)
Interestingly, that website has no company name or address or other
identification apart from a mobile contact number and an email addrees.
It says it is a ltd company so should be on the companies hose register.
As are literally zillions of fake dodgy companies all registered to the
same unlucky street or householder. But worth a quick check even if it
is fundamentally worthless as real proof of any bona fides.
Companies House just take the money and add the company to their list.
One day they might perhaps check the data validity.
Interestingly, that website has no company name or address or other identification apart from a mobile contact number and an email addrees.
Roger Hayter <roger@hayter.org> wrote:
Interestingly, that website has no company name or address or other
identification apart from a mobile contact number and an email addrees.
It does, in the cookie policy: https://www.boraxdirect.co.uk/cookie-policy-uk/
On 2025-06-30, Martin Brown <'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> wrote:
As are literally zillions of fake dodgy companies all registered to the
same unlucky street or householder. But worth a quick check even if it
is fundamentally worthless as real proof of any bona fides.
Companies House just take the money and add the company to their list.
One day they might perhaps check the data validity.
Companies House have recently greatly increased their fees, I think
because they're supposed to be doing some actual work for them now.
They have a fancy new beta Webfiling system that they admit doesn't workSome government web sites are good, while others (as you describe) are
for most people. It fails for two reasons - the old password is unlikely
to be long enough so it says "password invalid". So you go round the
password reset loop and create new high entropy 14+ character password.
Guess what - you can log in to the snazzy new webfiling beta service but
you can't actually do anything useful and it displays a message to the
effect that "some people (all?) are having trouble using this service"
and in case of trouble you should go back to the legacy site (valid link provided). You only have 14 days to do it before penalties kick in.
Guess what - to access that working site you have to use the previous
legacy password which was in fact correct but too short for the new
system. There things do work apart from the obvious cosmetic errors of
font sizes and buttons obscuring each other when you print a receipt.
Ironically to start a new company you still do not have to prove who you
are but to *pay* Corporation Tax you do. How arse about face is that
On 1 Jul 2025 at 09:44:50 BST, "Theo" <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
Roger Hayter <roger@hayter.org> wrote:
Interestingly, that website has no company name or address or other
identification apart from a mobile contact number and an email addrees.
It does, in the cookie policy: https://www.boraxdirect.co.uk/cookie-policy-uk/
Strangely, under the heading "How to Use Borax" it contains the statement (in red):
"Borax is for business use in manufacturing / industrial purpose and not for use by individuals for domestic use."
Whether they actually supply domestic customers with borax, or the borax substitute they also sell, remains to be seen.
On 30 Jun 2025 at 16:17:36 BST, "Adam Funk" <a24061a@ducksburg.com> wrote:
On 2025-06-30, Andy Burns wrote:
Adam Funk wrote:
Borax has not been available as a consumer product in the UK since
2010 (I think). You can still buy it from lab suppliers but at
reagent-grade prices.
Whether legal or not, it's available as a household cleaner (or a slime
activator) from here
<https://www.boraxdirect.co.uk>
Thanks! I'm surprised I couldn't find that myself. (It's a bit more
expensive than in Walmart, but I'm only just close to running out of
the bag I bought in the UK before it became unavailable.)
Interestingly, that website has no company name or address or other identification apart from a mobile contact number and an email addrees.
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