Waste Minimization Guidelines
Plan a procedure for waste disposal before you start on
a project. Label waste properly. It is up to each department,
group, or experimenter to identify waste chemicals properly
before disposal; inadvertent mixing of incompatible chemicals
could have serious consequences.
Protection of the environment makes the disposal of large
quantities of chemical liquid and solid wastes a difficult
problem. It is in everyone's best interest to keep quantities
of waste to a minimum.
The following suggestions may help:
- Order only the amount of chemical you need for your project
or experiment even if you can get twice as much for the
same money;
- Use only the amount of chemicals that are needed for
conclusive results;
- Avoid long term storage ( > 1 year) of excess chemical,
particularly if it is an extremely toxic or flammable chemical,
just because you may want it in the future;
- Before disposing of unwanted, unopened, uncontaminated
chemicals, check with others in your department who may
be able to use them;
- On termination of a research project or completion of
a thesis, all unused chemicals to be kept by the laboratory
must be labeled;
- Make sure all samples and products to be disposed of
are properly identified, labeled with its chemical name
and placed in correct containers. Do not leave them for
others to clean up after you