1. Introduction

  2. What are Waste Minimization and Pollution Prevention?

  3. Why are Waste Minimization and Pollution Prevention Important?

  4. Purchasing Chemicals

  5. Managing Chemical Inventories

  6. »Dealing with an Existing Inventory of Unwanted Chemicals«

  7. Conducting Experiments

  8. Scaling Down Experiments

  9. Substituting Materials

  10. Alternatives to Wet Chemistry

  11. Reusing and Recycling Chemical Resources

  12. Segregating Waste Streams

  13. In-Laboratory Treatment of Wastes

  14. Working with School Administrators, Students, Other Schools, and the Community

  15. Getting More Information

  16. Appendix A—Waste Minimization Checklist
 If you have inherited a cabinet full of poorly labeled or even unlabeled chemicals from a previous teacher, you are not alone. Many teachers are left with stockpiled chemicals and don’t know how to deal with them in a manner that does not present a danger to the environment—or even to themselves or their students.

Old inventories are a common problem. In 1986, a survey was conducted of over 100 secondary schools in Massachusetts. These schools reported that they had 8700 pounds and 500 gallons of unwanted chemicals. Forty-eight percent of the respondents said that chemicals had never been removed from their inventory. A survey of Illinois schools revealed similar problems.

These inventories tend to sit around because it is too much trouble to dispose of them properly. However, the truth is that these inventories are a huge liability—an accident waiting to happen. Dealing with an exposure to a student, teacher, or staff member will be a lot more trouble than safely disposing of the inventory.

Getting help

The first step in dealing with an unwanted inventory is to realize that stockpiled chemicals are not just your problem—they’re the school district’s problem and even the city, county, or state’s problem. The district and local and regional government have an obligation to help and you will need their help to dispose of the stockpile safely.

For example, in Illinois, the state embarked on an ambitious program to assist schools in getting rid of unwanted chemicals. In the summer of 1987, the Emergency Response Unit of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency oversaw an effort to remove 27,238 pounds of unwanted chemicals from secondary schools. The effort was funded with state spill cleanup funds.

It is possible that you may not live in a state (or city or county) that is willing to fund such a cleanup effort. In this case, government agencies might still be able to help you—by providing information on options, by helping you to pool resources with other schools, or by linking you up with private sponsors of a school cleanup. In any case, the school district as well as local and state authorities should be your first contacts in trying to solve your problem.

Local companies may also be helpful. A waste disposal contractor in New England held a lottery for Massachusetts schools for $100,000 in free chemical collection services. Seventeen schools were cleaned up as a result.

With some ingenuity, you may be able to secure other forms of assistance. For example, you may be able to enlist the help of a graduate student, whose time would be funded by a university, to assess and help you deal with the problem.

Disposing of the inventory

If you know what a chemical is and can safely and legally dispose of it yourself, then do so. But don’t expect to be able to dispose of a hazardous or unlabeled inventory yourself. It’s a job for professionals—you will probably need to hire a hazardous waste disposal contractor to properly pack and dispose of these chemicals. Again, soliciting the advice of local and state governments is important. They can point you towards the right type of disposal strategies.

Remember that if a chemical is hazardous or you don’t know what it is, you can’t throw it in the trash or pour it down the drain.

Making sure it doesn’t happen again

After the Illinois cleanup effort, officials emphasized that they would not undertake such an effort in the future. Now that the schools had been given a fresh start, officials expected them to regularly dispose of chemicals so that excess inventory would not accumulate.

So, once you dispose of your inventory, work to keep excess inventory from accumulating again. That’s a good policy even if you have an unmanageable inventory. Don’t let the problem get any worse. It may also be a good idea to set aside funds each month and then deliberately search for and dispose of unwanted chemicals on an incremental basis.

Ironically, inventories of dangerous chemicals may accumulate as schools switch to safer chemicals. If you discontinue use of a dangerous chemical, by all means get rid of the hazardous chemical at that time.


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Copyright © 1996 Battelle Seattle Research Center. All rights reserved.