School of Chemistry



School of Chemistry

Protocols for disposal of waste (updated July 2015)

1. Non-laboratory and general waste

• Paper for recycling should be placed in green bags/bins and cleaning staff will dispose of these – please do not overfill them. Cardboard should be flattened - there is a cardboard bin in the loading bay, or for large quantities there is a cardboard recycling skip outside the old boiler house (on the access road at the back of Engineering, near the corner of St Georges Field)

• Confidential waste is disposed of by cleaning services, see link below. Stores keep a stock of blue bags, but if you have a large quantity of confidential waste please contact cleaning section directly through the Estates helpdesk on 35555. (Disposal Procedure for Confidential Waste Paper.pdf)

• Recycling bins for general plastics, cans, paper, glass and food waste etc are throughout the building. These bins are under no circumstance to be used for laboratory waste.

• Used printer cartridges and batteries can be recycled through Stores. There is a bin for each in the Stores foyer area.

• General Waste. The University policy is that office bins are no longer emptied to encourage users to use the recycling bins in the corridors more effectively:

2. Chemical Waste Disposal

• The most appropriate disposal route should be identified during a COSHH/risk assessment. The major routes for chemical waste disposal are

• Waste silica bins

• Non-chlorinated waste solvent

• Chlorinated waste solvent

• Disposal to drains, i.e. down the sink.

• Special waste (this is a local term meaning anything that is not disposed of in any of the above ways).

Waste Silica and Molecular Sieves

• Green and white ‘bio-bin’ boxes should be used for silica waste.

• Silica/sieves can be mixed together and should be reasonably dry prior to disposal.

• Use the electronic form to request when the box is 2/3 full for removal.

• Do not place silica/sieves contaminated with highly toxic agents (e.g. HMPA) or stench agents (e.g. thiols) in the general silica bins, this should be bagged separately as special waste and properly labelled.

Waste Solvent

• Non-chlorinated and chlorinated residue drums are found in most laboratories, please ensure that all halogenated solvents and compounds go into the chlorinated waste – we get audited on this!

• Do not place toxic solvents or chemicals like benzene, HMPA, heavy metals etc in normal solvent wastes, these should be treated as special waste

• Do not place stench reagents like thiols in normal solvent wastes, these should be treated as special waste or quenched as appropriate

• Do not place highly reactive materials such as organolithium reagents, hydrides, SOCl2, etc in general wastes. These must be quenched before disposal or be disposed of as special wastes.

• Only fill drums to the line indicated.

• Use the electronic form to request removal by Stores. Drums go into dedicated outside storage until collection by chemical waste specialists.

Disposal down drains

• Only ok for water-soluble materials that are benign to the environment and drainage system.

• This may include sodium chloride, potassium carbonate, calcium chloride, sodium hydroxide, mineral acids, etc

• This does not include alcohols, acetone and other organic solvents; these go in non-chlorinated wastes.

• Always run a large excess of fresh water to dilute the materials

• Do not dispose of acids and bases in close succession!

Special waste disposal

• Special waste is for highly toxic/carcinogenic/reactive etc material which cannot be mixed with other waste solvent.

• This may include tin residues, mercury waste, and other heavy and other toxic metals, HMPA, benzene, and other residues which pose an unacceptable risk if disposed of via the means above

• Such waste must be placed in clearly labelled containers (e.g. Winchesters) which are stored in appropriate locations (fume hoods or chemical cabinets). The label must list the contents and the hazard and must be resistant to being rubbed out or dissolved. Simply writing on glass with marker pen is not adequate. Remove/obliterate existing label to avoid confusion.

• Use a container appropriate to the amount of waste, disposal company charge per size of bottle.

• In some cases it is acceptable to mix special wastes according to hazard category but only if they will not react together! For example is acceptable to collect mercury together in one container, or collect chromium / chromate waste into one container rather than producing lots of smaller waste containers.

• DO NOT store nitric acid wastes unless very heavily diluted – see “Nitric Acid Fact Sheet” for more information: Nitric Acid Fact Sheet.doc

• Empty lecture bottles / gas cylinder that are not rented need to be disposed of as special waste.

• Used pump oil needs to be disposed of as special waste.

• Once container is full or you’ve completed the work generating this waste.

➢ Fill in the electronic form at

➢ Write the number issued clearly on the bottle

➢ Store the bottle safely until it is collected in the quarterly waste disposal round

➢ You will receive automated reminders for the deadlines for each quarterly disposal round.

3. General Laboratory Waste

Laboratories should stock different types of labelled bins where appropriate:

1. Clean Glass Disposal Boxes. Stores stock reinforced cardboard boxes designed for glass disposal and these should be used. Please rinse out Pasteur pipettes!

2. Sharps bins for needles, razors, stanley knive blades etc – No Glass!

3. Healthcare and Offensive waste bin with an orange bin liner see section 4 below.

4. Other waste bin with black bin liner for inoffensive waste.

Glass Disposal Boxes

• Glass for disposal should be clean, please rinse out Pasteur pipettes!

• Heavily contaminated glassware will need to disposed of as hazardous chemical waste

• Full intact boxes will be collected by Stores on request

• Winchester-type bottles should be cleaned and labelled “Clean and Safe” for re-cycling. Other chemical bottles should be cleaned and labelled “Clean and Safe” before disposal in the glass boxes. A label template is available under the waste disposal heading on the safety pages of the Chemistry website: Clean and Safe Labels.doc

Sharps Bins

In the past sharps bins have been disposed of in yellow bags, these are now to be individually tagged with a numbered green cable tie. Please request collection using the electronic forms on the chemistry website. Orange topped sharps bins and green numbered tags are all free issued from stores.

Inoffensive waste should be collected in black bags

This includes paper towel, packaging, plastic wrappers etc. These bags do NOT need to be tagged and will be collected by Stores on request using the electronic form.

4. Healthcare and Offensive Waste

Disposal procedures:

Healthcare and Offensive waste should be collected in orange bags:

• It is the perception of “offensive” by future handlers and not simply hazard that is important in determining what constitutes offensive waste.

Offensive waste includes:

• Disposable gloves

• Plastic syringes

• Plastic pipettes

• Other lab disposables such as centrifuge tubes, cuvettes, etc

• Used filter papers

• Bags should be kept in a robust bag holder or bin and filled to no more than ¾ full and 5 kg in weight. The contents should not be compressed to fit more in.

• Bags must be securely closed with a green official numbered tie free-issue from Stores. The top of the bag must be gathered together and turned over (Fig. 1) before closing with the tag (“Swan-necking”).

Fig. 1 guidelines on securing clinical and offensive waste sacks

• Bags should only be handled using the loop created by “swan-necking” (Fig. 1).

• Properly sealed bags will be collected by Stores after filling the electronic form. Users will need to fill out the tag number, laboratory/room number and location of bag within the lab.

5. Other specialist waste

• How to deal with healthcare and biological waste is addressed during specific training for the use of microbiological labs which is compulsory for all users of this facility. Please see the Biological Safety Officer (Bruce Turnbull) for training.

• For advice on the disposal of radioactive waste see the School radiation protection officer (Michaele Hardie).

• Contact MAPS IT for disposal of old computer equipment.

• Contact Rachael Fox for disposal of old electrical equipment or laboratory equipment.

• There is a metal waste bin in the mechanical workshop for disposing of any waste metals.

6. Electronic forms

The electronic forms on the safety pages of the Chemistry website can be used to request the removal of a number of different waste items. These forms can be found on the safety pages of the Chemistry intranet: under the waste disposal heading.

Inoffensive waste

The form is found at

Click on the waste you wish to dispose of:

• Black Sack from laboratories only, the communal office and corridor bins should be emptied by the university cleaning staff.

• Glass bin

• Silica waste

• Non Chlorinated Solvent

• Chlorinated Solvent

• Clean and Safe Glass Bottles

Offensive waste

The form is found at

Click on the waste you wish to dispose of:

• Sharps bins.

• Orange bags

Users will need to fill out the tag number, laboratory/room number and location of bag/bin within the lab.

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