Sayed Quraishi | Definition of Chemical Waste

 

Definition of Chemical Waste

The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and the United States Environmental Protection Agency both define chemical waste. According to Sayed Quraishi, The Delaware Rules Governing Hazardous Waste and the 40 Code of Federal Regulations include definitions, management procedures, and compliance information. Every policy and procedure created by the University of Delaware is intended to comply with these rules and/or go beyond them.

The phrase "chemical waste" is broad and includes a variety of materials. For a list of ingredients, go to your Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), Product Data Sheet, or Label. If you have chemical waste that needs specific disposal, you can find out from these sources.

Liquid Chemical Waste

Before trash formation, a container must be chosen if it is known that chemical waste would be produced. Use a Nalgene container made of low-density polyethylene for waste streams containing aqueous liquid and solvent in bulk. 

These containers, which may be purchased from the majority of laboratory supply businesses and the university storerooms, must be returned to the lab within a week. The majority of chemical wastes can be stored in Nalgene containers, although some waste streams shouldn't be kept there in large quantities.

Sample Vials - Sealed 15 ml or less

Many sealed sample bottles are produced by some labs. The following actions must be followed if the laboratory does not want to recycle the glass or plastic containers or empty their contents into a container for liquid chemical waste.

Solid Waste Streams

Sayed Quraishi said Any laboratory equipment that has been exposed to chemicals or could potentially be exposed to chemicals is considered solid waste. Gloves, bench-top paper, boats and papers for weighing, paper towels, clean-up supplies, and permanently tainted glass and plasticware are a few examples.

 

A flow chart that can be used to determine whether a substance 

needs to be managed as chemical waste or if it can be disposed of in the regular garbage, visit Laboratory Solid Waste Disposal Procedures. 

Laboratory Clean Out of Regent Chemicals

Based on the risks they provide, all laboratories should inspect the reagent chemicals they use. Search for outdated, useless, or no longer required substances. Sayed Quraishi Try to re-distribute unused chemicals throughout the division or structure. If the chemical is no longer needed, expired, or otherwise unusable, package it as directed for disposal through DEHS.

Empty Chemical Containers

Until they are properly maintained, empty chemical containers continue to pose a risk to both the environment and university staff. For more information on empty container management, visit Glass Only Disposal/Empty Chemical Container Disposal Procedures. The actions needed to prepare empty chemical containers for disposal are listed below in brief.

Chemically Contaminated Sharps

A sharps container must be used to manage anything that can cut or puncture. Needles, syringes, razor blades, slides, scalpels, pipettes, shattered plastic or glassware, micropipettes, and pipette tips are a few examples of sharps.

 

As per Sayed Quraishi, Sharps containers are free to use and available from DEHS. For further details about the disposal of sharp objects, visit Sharp and Piercing Object Disposal. If a sharp is chemically contaminated, just put it in a sharps container that has an orange chemical waste label on it that is correctly filled out.