Introduction What are Waste Minimization and Pollution Prevention? Why are Waste Minimization and Pollution Prevention Important? Purchasing Chemicals Managing Chemical Inventories Dealing with an Existing Inventory of Unwanted Chemicals Conducting Experiments Scaling Down Experiments »Substituting Materials« Alternatives to Wet Chemistry Reusing and Recycling Chemical Resources Segregating Waste Streams In-Laboratory Treatment of Wastes Working with School Administrators, Students, Other Schools, and the Community Getting More Information Appendix A—Waste Minimization Checklist

Substitution of hazardous chemicals in the laboratories with nonhazardous (or at least less-hazardous) chemicals is an important source reduction strategy. If you use nonhazardous chemicals in place of hazardous chemicals, you’ve gone a long way towards avoiding a hazardous waste problem. Substitution can sometimes be done in conjunction with scaling down quantities used in experiments (see Chapter 8), giving you a double savings. Both substitution and scaling down experiments should be considered before such options as reuse, recycling, or treatment. (Remember that, according to the waste management hierarchy, source reduction is always preferable to recycling, treatment, or disposal.) Substitution of hazardous chemicals with non- or less-hazardous chemicals has been achieved by a number of secondary schools, as well as some high schools and introductory college chemistry courses. These schools have created laboratory curricula that rely on chemicals and compounds that can be purchased at the local grocery store, rather than from a chemical supplier. Click here for a table that includes some of the possible substitutes for hazardous chemicals.

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