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Create a waste disposal program for your lab

Lab Safety Advisor, April 24, 2006

Create a waste disposal program for your lab

Create a waste disposal program that specifies how waste is to be collected, segregated, stored, and transported. This plan should also mention what materials can be incinerated. This minimizes any harm to people, organisms, and the environment that may result from the disposal of laboratory chemical waste.

Certain chemicals are permissible for drain disposal. Contact your local sewer district to determine what is and is not acceptable. The drain system must connect to a sanitary sewer system that ultimately flows to a wastewater treatment facility. At no time can a septic tank system be used for chemical disposal. Only those chemicals reasonably soluble in water are suitable for drain disposal. Check the chemical's MSDS for more information about the solubility of each chemical. These compounds should be flushed with at least 100 volumes of water.

There are exceptions. The following substances are not suitable for drain disposal:

  • Organics with boiling points less than 50ºC.
  • Hydrocarbons, halogenated hydrocarbons, nitro compounds, mercaptans, and most oxygenated compounds that contain more than five carbon atoms (e.g., freon).
  • Organics that are explosives, such as azides and peroxides.
  • Concentrated acids or bases
  • Highly toxic malodorous (such as hydrogen sulfide) or lachrymatory substances (such as chlorine or chloracetophenon)

Incineration in an environmentally acceptable manner is the most practical disposal method for combustible laboratory waste. Do not pour waste chemicals down the drain indiscriminately or add them to mixed refuse for landfill burial. Do not use hoods to dispose of volatile chemicals. Use recycling or chemical decontamination whenever possible.

Remove waste from the laboratory to a central waste storage area at least once per week, and from the central waste storage area at regular intervals. For quantities of hazardous waste between 220 and 2200 pounds, storage is allowed from the day the waste is generated up to 180 days if the waste is shipped less than 200 miles for disposal or 270 days if waste is shipped more than 200 miles. Once 2200 pounds is exceeded, the facility becomes a large quantity generator and storage is for 90 days only.

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