| Environmental Health & Safety |
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Operational Practices to Minimize Hazardous Waste
- Centralize the purchasing of chemicals through one person in the lab.
- Take inventory of your chemicals regularly. Note the dates on the chemicals and dispose of any aging chemicals in a timely manner.
- Use all of your older chemicals before purchasing or opening new chemicals.
- Do experiments on as small a scale as is feasible, and periodically review procedures to see if the scale could be reduced.
- Prevent students from over-dispensing chemicals.
- Pre-weigh/pre-dispense chemicals that are needed for experimentation.
- Store stock chemicals in small nozzled bottles
- Prepare stock solutions prior to each experiment or on a regular periodic basis (for example, on every Monday) rather than keeping them constantly on the shelf.
- Accurately label all waste bottles.
- Detoxify or neutralize waste products if possible.
- Substitute instrumental methods for wet chemistry whenever possible.
- Purchase compressed gas cylinders or lecture bottles only from manufacturers who will accept the empty cylinders back.
- Avoid mixing wastes.
- Keep non-hazardous chemical waste separate from hazardous waste.
- Avoid experiments that produce waste that is both radioactive and chemically hazardous.
- Keep chemical waste separate from normal trash.
