Draining leachate with a drain line lowers your handling of the leachate. Generally, you should drain it to:

• A tank that is pumped out by a septage hauler;
• A septic system (septic tank and leach field);
• A system to be combined with graywater for irrigation of plants such as the Ecocyclet.

U.S. regulators usually require that leachate must either be evaporated inside the composter or removed for transport to a conventional treatment plant.

Leachate can build up, but many people think it occurs only during peak use or power outages. In the authors’ experience, it does collect, even in composters with electric heaters. So, it is better to provide an easy and automatic means of removal, such as a gravity drain line or pump.

Leachate can be recombined with filtered graywater for subsurface aerobic irrigation; it is a natural combination of nitrogen and carbon for plants. You can also dilute it with eight parts water to irrigate biologically active soils with non edible plants. (Wear gloves!) Remember: Leachate and graywater contain nutrients for soil microbes, which transform them into plant food.