The first rule in handling laboratory waste is that no activity should be started without a plan for the disposal of nonhazardous and hazardous waste. Having this plan ensures that you are following the various federal and state regulatory requirements. Chemical waste disposal must avoid any unexpected difficulties, such as generating chemical, radioactive, or biological waste, which can result in explosive or dangerous reactions.
Environmental Marketing Services, LLC is prepared to handle your chemical waste disposal. We service numerous labs, including:
Pathology labs
Water Testing labs
High School labs
College Science labs
Forensic and Crime labs
Agriculture and Forestry labs
Veterinary labs
Many other labs
EMSLLC has over ninety years of experience developing innovative solutions and cost-effective methods of meeting all your chemical waste disposal needs.
Chemical Waste Disposal of Vials in Laboratories
Many laboratories use the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) vials. These vials are used in measuring the amount of organic compounds in water. The most common testing involves using a water sample pipetted into the COD vial, which holds a pre-measured reagent. The reagents will react at a high temperature by changing color. This color change is then analyzed to reach a conclusion.
The chemicals involved with COD vials are highly hazardous. These vials contain sulphate, potassium dichromate, mercury and sulfuric acid. The COD vial will require proper chemical waste disposal. EMSLLC can handle these types of waste properly and under regulations for your lab.
According to the Environmental Health & Safety office, any lab that generates vials, such as COD or GC/MS containing hazardous waste, does not require that you pour out small amounts before disposing of them.
Check with EMSLLC on how these vials can be containerized in a single outer container. Often they can be placed in a five-gallon plastic bucket or four-liter glass bottle. These containers must be labeled, including all constituents in the vials listed on the label. Radioactive liquid scintillation vials are handled differently. EMSLLC will have alternative procedures for you to follow on this type of chemical waste disposal.
Chemical Waste Disposal of Reactive and Radioactive Materials
How your lab will dispose of highly reactive, pyrophoric, or water-reactive chemical waste depends on how the materials were generated, and the condition of the container you’ve used for storage. These materials must be quenched appropriately before being collected for chemical waste disposal. EMSLLC can help guide you through this process.
Reaction mixtures, which contain highly reactive reagents, must be handled with extreme care and completely quenched before being collected. The quenched materials have to be collected in a separate container from your other wastes. You must also use a hazardous waste tag to label these containers and include all the quenched mixture constituents.
Chemical Waste Disposal of Bio-Medical Waste
Bio-medical waste must first go through a safe sterilization process before disposing of it. EMSLLC is ready to help you through this process to ensure you are following all federal and state regulations to dispose of materials.
Bio-medical waste cannot be recycled, such as your needles or gauze, but still has to be made nonhazardous and sanitary before you dispose of it. Most services include the use of a medical autoclave, which steams the materials to sterilize your equipment and other objects. These devices use high enough temperature to inactivate viruses, fungi, bacteria, and spores. Through this process, no bacteria can survive, which makes the objects safe for recycling or disposal.
Chemical Waste Disposal Procedures for Lab Packs
Lab pack disposal is an accumulation of small amounts of hazardous chemicals, which have appropriately been re-packaged in a lab pack disposal container, which is approved by government regulations. The lab pack disposal process starts by identifying, categorizing, and segregating all chemicals, solvents, acids, and bases, and re-packing them into a drum. The drum should be no larger than 110 gallons.
Lab Pack Management and Chemical Waste Disposal
Community colleges, universities, and chemistry labs in high schools often use corrosive, flammable, toxic, reactive, and poisonous chemicals. These materials have to be disposed of at the end of each school year or semester. Lab packing is the safest disposal method but does require the following of fully-compliant regulations.
EMSLLC will ensure your lab follows the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), RCRA (Resource Recovery and Conservation Act), and LDR (Land Disposal Restrictions) regulations through your lab pack management. One rule for these chemicals is that it is against the law to dump hazardous chemicals down your sink or floor drains or throw them out in general trash.
Government regulations forbid lab pack chemicals to be combined without having a licensed chemist overseeing the process. These chemicals could result in a volatile eruption and cost you a much higher disposal fee.
The EPA and other state organizations are not the only rules you are required to follow for lab pack disposal. The DOT (Department of Transportation) and OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) also has strict requirements for the transportation, safe handling, and treatment of your lab pack chemicals.
EMSLLC can work with you throughout the handling, storage, and disposal procedures necessary for your lab to follow appropriate lab pack disposal procedures.
Environmental Marketing Services, LLC understands your objectives to create cost effective and innovative solutions for your chemical waste disposal. We will help your organization minimize liabilities as well as protect your environment. We are ready to help you create safe and appropriate chemical waste disposal procedures for all waste that cannot be thrown into the trash or poured down your drain.
