12 Department Waste Disposal
See also Safety Services Waste Guide
12:1 General Points
12:1:1 All empty chemical bottles MUST be returned to the special box in the open stores (room 341) in order to remove them from the Chemical Stock Index.
12:1:2 If small contaminated bottles are included in Burn bins for disposal, their tops MUST be removed.
12:1:3 Aerosol cans MUST NOT be included in waste to be incinerated.
12:1:4 Although unmarked containers, bottles and glassware should not contain hazardous materials, remember that mistakes can be made and care should be taken with all unlabelled material.
12:1:5 Before taking final leave of the Department you MUST return all your unused and part used chemicals to a member of the technical staff. You MUST also safely dispose of all your stock solutions.
12:1:6 Collection of liquid waste for disposal by University Contractor:
- Liquids are collected in empty cleaned, wide necked Fi-Safe (plastic coated) Winchester bottles with all manufacturers labels removed. They are labelled "BIOLOGY DEPT - SOLVENT WASTE" and have a tie-on label provided so that disposal can be listed. These bottles are available from the open store (room 341). Use of empty bottles with defaced manufacturers labels is NOT acceptable. Also available from 341 are ventilated caps that should be used on all volatile solvent bottles, particularly waste chemical bottles.
- Chlorinated solvents and mixtures must be kept separate from other solvents. See also d) below.
- List all disposals in the bottle on the tie on label. Give name of chemical and volume of disposal. NB: An entry "60% Acetone - 400 ml" does not indicate the make up of the remaining 40%.
- Before disposing of liquids into waste bottles, be aware that incompatibilities between chemicals can occur. This information is given on Hazard Data sheets. Check this before disposal.
- When full, take the suitably labelled bottle (in Winchester carrier) to one of the cabinets reserved for waste solvents. These are located in most laboratories. Disposal will be arranged by the technical staff.
- If you are producing large amounts of any individual liquid waste, it may help to dedicate waste bottles to these liquids.
- If you are intending to produce radioactive solvent waste special procedures have to be followed. Discuss with DRPO or RPS before commencing work.
| Solid waste | Disposal route |
| Non-contaminated paper and packaging and uncontaminated gloves. Polymerised gels adequately wrapped (inside used glove etc) | Lab waste bins or black plastic sacks |
| Contaminated paper, plastics, pipette tips, disposable pipettes and gloves | Blue biohazard bags which MUST be packed in black sacks AFTER autoclaving |
| Sharps, needles, fine broken glass, contaminated plastics and contaminated gloves | Burn bins for incineration |
| Broken glassware (if contaminated, may require decontaminating before disposal) | Glass bins |
| Organic wastes - animal carcasses, dissection waste, etc | Disposal route |
| Uncontaminated small amounts of soft tissue, e.g. the odd fish, salamander etc. | Dispose down one of the "Disposamatics" |
| Large amounts, after classes etc., or chemically contaminated carcasses and tissues. |
Place initially in black sack and then in yellow polythene sack and store in a freezer. The bag labels must contain the following information, Dept., Lab No. and Date. The bag must be securely sealed. All items must be logged in and a Clinical Waste Record Sheet completed. On the following Monday afternoon the bags must be transferred to the yellow clinical waste container at the Adrian building goods entrance. The key is available from the porters room on the ground floor. Make sure that the key is returned after use. The Clinical waste container is cleared by contractors on Tuesday mornings. |
| Carcasses and tissues contaminated with radioisotopes | See Radioactive Wastes |
| Freshwater collections and rubbish | Strain through a collecting net bag over the designated sink in Lab 306 |
| Liquid waste | Disposal route |
|
Acids |
Flush down sink, diluting greatly with water |
| Flammable solvents (small volumes miscible with water) | Flush down sink diluting greatly with water. Leave tap running for 5 mins minimum after disposal |
|
Flammable solvents (large volumes miscible with water) Flammable solvents (immiscible with water) Toxic Solutions |
All these disposals are completed by the University Waste Disposal Contractor, see General Points number 6 |
|
Electrophoresis Waste N.B. EtBr penetrates latex gloves quite easily - nitrile gloves give much better protection. |
Disposal route |
| Waste gels | Place in yellow plastic, labelled burn bin. The bin will be removed at intervals by the technical staff and sent for incineration. |
| Waste buffer containing Ethidium bromide |
Buffer containing ethidium bromide Dilute solutions (less than 0.1% ethidium bromide in the solution): to drain with plenty of water The amount of EtBr used should be kept as low as possible, e.g. by putting the stain in the gel. Waste concentrated stock solutions: to chemical waste contractor. |
| Pipette tips contaminated with Ethidium Bromide |
Place in a cinbin. See Laboratory Safety Manual for Lab 331, Ethidium Bromide data sheet. |
