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
 Segregating laboratory wastes during handling, storing, and lab packing is important for safety reasons, for legal reasons, for pollution prevention reasons, and for ensuring the lowest disposal costs. Many of the ideas presented in Chapter 5 on Managing Inventories can also help you manage wastes.

Segregation of incompatible materials in a storage area is critical. Ignitables should be separated from oxidizers or sources of ignition, especially solvents. Acids should be separated from bases, and oxidizing agents from reducing agents. There are also more specific chemical incompatibilities that you might want to consider during waste storage—these can be found in waste management publications or in the references cited in Chapter 15.

Hazardous and nonhazardous wastes should not be mixed together. Likewise, organic and inorganic waste streams should be segregated. For example, if you mix solvents with oils (e.g., from auto shop), you can expect to pay up to five times the disposal cost because the waste is now mixed. Segregating wastes within the same material type is also important, especially in the category of organic wastes.

Waste streams that you can recycle, especially recoverable metals or solvents, should be stored separately. In some cases, segregation will be important to facilitate recycling. For example, halogenated solvents and non-halogenated solvents should always be stored separately, since they need to be distilled separately. In particular, chlorinated solvents (which you might want to avoid using altogether) should not be mixed with non-chlorinated solvent wastes.

If a contract disposal service prepares your lab packs, they should provide accumulation and storage instructions for proper waste segregation. If you prepare your own lab packs, you will need to follow waste management regulations.


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