Reusing salt water from baths, and clay from poultice

Hello; I've been reading a few books on phytotherapy, and the author also write about taking salt water baths and using clay for medicinal purposes.

I'd love to try, but I also don't want to just throw it all out afterward. The theory is that the salt/clay will absorb toxins from the skin, which mean you can't reuse it afterward (at least for the same purpose) .

As I don' work in a metal, chemical or nuclear factory, I'll take a wild guess and say that the toxins that clay will absorb would eventually be destroyed by a garden micro-organisms, and so could be reused here and there, but I'm not entirely sure.

However, it's more difficult when talking about the salt: if I want to get rid of the garden, sure, I could dump it there, but that's clearly not what I want to do. How could I reuse the salt water ? I could evaporate the water using the sun, but the salt would still be filled with toxins and so be unusable for cooking of medicine.

So, how can I re-use that clay and that salt ?

Clay - go ahead and use it directly in the garden.

Salt - this one is harder, and it depends on your climate. If you live in a wet climate, with plenty of rainfall year round, then diluting the salt and distributing it over a wide area seems reasonable. You want to avoid overloading any one area, and the regular rain will dilute it further and wash it into the soil. In wet climates some of the soluble trace minerals will be potentially beneficial to the soil and plants. BUT the devil is in the dose. It would be so so easy to over do it, particularly if you are doing this regularly.

In a dry climate I would simply not go there. Far too easy to build up an accumulation of salt in the soil over time.

I also wouldn't invest any particular effort or materials in evaporating the water from salt to collect it again. Salt - especially mined rock salt - is abundant in nature, easily mined and the mines tend not to be environmentally destructive - surface infrastructure tends to be minimal. And once the salt had been washed into waterways and drains it just returns to the sea, given enough time. Throwing time, effort and materials after reclaiming salt seems counter productive. You are better off using that investment elsewhere.

agreed with what was said above - if you are going to dilute it and use it, I'd personally recommend at least 30-1 fresh to salt water... that also depends on how salty your bath is. if we are talking 'float tank' salty, then probably go higher than 30-1. Using 30-1 fresh water to ocean water is an old technique in Korean natural farming. I use that ratio, but I only use it on certain parts of the garden once a year, and I get plenty of rain - average 48" annually, and have sandy soil.

I wonder too if it could be used somewhere that you didn't want plants to grow? driveway? parking spot? I'm not sure if that would have negative effects surrounding where you dumped the water, and I'm not sure how long the "negative" effects would last.... the idea needs more thought, but it just popped up in my head...

We use decent amounts of these things. Epsom salt baths get diluted and thrown out in the garden (carefully, as mentioned above). Clay goes into the bokashi. Salt water we dilute with rainwater and use to flush toilets (no septic here, city system). It can be used for cleaning, and I will do that inside if I'm scrubbing the shower, for example (rinse well, obvs) but I'm concerned about where it would run off if I were to use it outside to clean the patio, for example.