Hazardous Materials and Waste
Hazardous materials are defined as those materials that are: flammable, corrosive, air or water reactive or toxic (see Definitions of Hazardous Materials). It is the responsibility of the lab principal investigator to manage their hazardous material in their lab. This includes proper packaging and labeling of unwanted hazardous materials per the following guidelines, and applicable regulations.The Department of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) is charged with the responsibility of defining if unwanted materials are hazardous or not, and removing all hazardous materials, used and unused, from University facilities. EHS provides guidance on how to properly package and label waste material. Materials picked up by EHS are recycled, used by someone else, or disposed of at an EPA approved facility.
Hazardous Material Removal:
- Use safe containers. Please package all hazardous materials properly for transport by EHS personnel, see packaging requirements below.
- Fill out the Pickup Request Form.
- Please check that all sections are filled out accurately and completely. The information on the form is used by chemists to safely handle your chemicals and to file an annual report with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Incomplete forms will be returned. If you have filled out an online request you do not need to mail a copy.
Procedures - Collection, Storage, Handling, Transport
- Maintain all hazardous materials in appropriate closed containers with airtight lids. Keep containers closed at all times except when adding or removing the material.
- Keep all hazardous materials targeted for EHS inside your lab or shop at all times. EHS will pick up from your lab. Storage in corridors or pathways for exiting is a violation of Fire Code.
- Do not mix incompatible chemicals (i.e. oxidizers with flammables) unless under controlled circumstances in a fume hood as part of an experiment.
- Do not mix hazardous materials with non-hazardous materials. It greatly increases waste disposal costs.
- Accurately label all containers with chemical names and all constituents. It is imperative to avoid producing containers whose contents are unknown. Such materials are very expensive to dispose of. If containers of unknown chemicals are found, please contact EHS to make special arrangements.
- Store chemicals following established guidelines .
- The outside of the containers must be clean and free of chemical contamination.
- Use appropriate containers. All glass containers must be securely packaged to prevent breakage during transport.
- All containers of liquids must have screw lids and must not leak when inverted. Corks, cotton plugs, tape, or parafilm are not acceptable lids for containers of hazardous materials.
- If possible, use the same container for dispoasl of used material that held the new material originally.
- Metal cans are not acceptable for accumulating hazardous solvents or corrosives - except for waste oil. Two and half gallon polyethylene containers are available at no cost from
- Loose solid materials must be placed in a sealed container or in a cardboard box lined with two polyethylene bags.
- Containers storing hazardous materials must be kept closed, except when adding or removing contents.
Chemical Exchange Program
If you wish to dispose of a chemical that is still useful, check with your peers in other labs to see if they can use it. If they can't, please fill out a pickup request as normal and indicate that it is for the CHEMICAL EXCHANGE. Someone from EHS will come pick up the chemical and place it in our exchange program for someone else to use.
Before you purchase a specific chemical, please look at the Chemical Exchange page to see if EHS has that chemical on hand. If so,you can have that chemical for free. Just call EHS at 1-6590.
Non-Infectious Sharps Disposal
The disposal procedure for non-infectious sharps is in place to provide protection to custodial staff and disposal crews from injury. This is in response to actual injuries due to unknown sharp items placed in regular trash containers. Placing glass and other non-infectious sharps in regular trash containers presents a real hazard to custodians when removing trash bags from the labs to the trash bins outside. Sharps can easily puncture plastic trash bags and present poking, cutting, and contamination hazards to custodians. Placing the non-infectious sharps waste in the provided plastic lined boxes contains the sharps, so that they do not become a problem for the custodians and trash disposal crews during transportation and disposal.
The responsibility of the lab personnel:
- The lab personnel are responsible to properly segregate and package all their unwanted hazardous materials for disposal. This includes chemical, radioactive, infectious, and noninfectious sharps.
- Only non-infectious sharps are to be placed in the non-infectuous sharps containers.
- Bottles of any size larger than 1 pint are not to be put in the containers unless they are broken. Large bottles are to be set-aside for the custodians to throw out separately.
- Metal sharps such as needles, syringes, and razor blades should go in the red biohazard (infectious) waste containers.
- Lab personnel are responsible for closing up the boxes when they are full and setting them outside the lab door for pickup.
- Any containers that are overfilled and not closed are not safe for the custodians to handle and will not be picked up, but will be put back in the lab for the lab personnel to properly close.
- To supply the labs with containers (boxes and bags, etc) as appropriate.
- To request support from EHS regarding bags, boxes and supplies as needed.
- To make sure containers (boxes, etc) are securely closed (taped, etc). All closed sharps containers sitting outside lab doors will be disposed to the dumpster.
- The boxes supplied by EHS are disposable. Custodians or lab personnel are NOT to remove the plastic bags to dispose of its contents. The entire box is to be thrown away and a new box will replace it.