The University of Queensland
Green Labs Program
Chemical Management
Waste from chemical use is an integral by-product of most lab work. However, there
are steps that can be taken to practice more sustainable chemical management.
Plan your experiments
Forward planning of experiments can significantly reduce environmental risk. On-line
training, which should be taken by all persons before they enter the lab, outlines the risk
assessment process required when setting up experiments. This process outlines good
chemical management skills and how to correctly dispose of chemical waste.
Supervisors take note
If you supervise undergraduate and postgraduate students then it is your responsibility to
ensure they manage chemicals correctly. Students taught good habits from the start are
more likely to continue these habits in future research.
The following process will help correctly manage chemicals:
1. Determine what wastes will be produced and the concentrations of that waste.
2. Determine if any of these wastes can be disposed of in the sewer. The trade waste
sewer acceptance criteria (see below) can help you make that decision. These
guidelines have details on the concentrations of certain chemicals that can be put
down the sink. The waste may need to be diluted before it can be disposed of in this
manner.
3. If chemicals can’t be disposed down the sewer then waste disposal containers
should be ordered from the Chemical Store. Each chemical process should have a
separate waste container.
4. Note that MSDS relate to the pure chemical and do not outline the properties of a
diluted chemical.
Trade Waste Sewer Acceptance Criteria1
Any chemicals discharged to sewer must meet the Queensland Urban
Utilities’ Trade Waste Sewer Acceptance Criteria. That is:
1. Waste must be miscible (soluble) with water.
2. Waste must not be TOXIC (DG 6) or hazardous to aquatic, marine and terrestrial life
and environments (refer to MSDS).
3. Waste must not be FLAMMABLE (DG3) at the point of being sewered (i.e. when it is
put down the sink). Acceptable flammable liquids must therefore be less than 10% of
their explosive concentrations (refer to MSDS) before being sewered.
4. Waste solutions must be within a pH range of 6 to 10.
1
Chemical Waste Operating Procedure, www.uq.edu.au/sustainability/docs/policiesprocedures/pro_ChmWste.pdf
Chemical Management
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Issue No. 3
Issue date: 22/04/2013
The University of Queensland
Green Labs Program
What happens to waste chemicals?
Cost of chemical waste disposal
Chemicals can either be flushed down the sink or sent
off to the Chemical Store in a labelled waste container.
What happens to them then?
In 2010 UQ spent $500,000 to dispose of
chemical
waste
through
a
waste
management company.
This does not
include the cost of staff picking up waste
chemicals and sorting them out, or the cost
of the vehicles to pick up the wastes.
Putting appropriate chemicals down the sink
can significantly reduce the cost of disposal
and over-processing of waste chemicals.
When chemicals are disposed of down the sink they are
treated at a wastewater treatment plant. The types of
chemicals that are permitted to be disposed of in this
way are generally already found in the receiving waters
(for example, sodium chloride) or are easily degradable during the wastewater treatment
process into chemicals that are not harmful to the environment.
When chemicals are sent to the Chemical Store they are sent to one of 20 different locations
around Australia by road transport. A small percentage of chemical can be recycled such as
silver, gold, lead and some solvents. Generally some chemicals are brought to a stable
condition and to the smallest volume possible (generally using heat and therefore energy).
Typically the waste is then encapsulated in concrete and stored down a disused mine shaft
with the GPS location logged.
Order only what you need
Sometimes chemicals are over-ordered. For example, if 500mL of a chemical is ordered but
only 100mL is used, then 400mL is left over. As the bottle has been opened and exposed to
the atmosphere it is no longer a grade quality chemical. It may be possible to find someone
in the area who can use it such as an undergraduate student or honours researcher. Speak
with the lab manager or Green Lab Representative to
Sharing chemicals increases space
find out if anyone else can use the chemicals, or
Level 11 of the Chemistry Building in the
access the chemical inventory if only a small amount of
School of Chemistry and Molecular
chemical is required.
Biosciences share their chemicals. They
take it in turns to make sure the chemical
bottles are refilled. This reduces the
number of chemical bottles in the lab,
ensures chemicals are always available
and fosters a sense of community.
Often the chemical is returned to the Chemical Store.
Staff at the Chemical Store cannot be certain of the
experimental technique used and cannot rule out
contamination. Therefore the chemical cannot be
passed on to anyone else in case of impurities. Therefore in this example, 400mL of
chemical is wasted. If only 150 or 200mL had been ordered, then less goes to waste.
The Chemical Store price chemicals so that the cost of a chemical is the same per mL
regardless of how much is purchased. Therefore if 1L is purchased five times or 5L
purchased once, it will cost the same. These costs do not take into consideration the extra
costs of disposing of the unused, left over chemical or the additional safety risk of housing
more chemicals in the lab.
Chemical Management
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The University of Queensland
Green Labs Program
The Chemical Store can generally supply a chemical:
1. within a day of ordering if it is in stock;
2. within a week if it is in stock within Australia; and
3. within 1-4 weeks if it comes from overseas.
Therefore, with a little forward planning, chemicals can be ordered to be ready when you
are, reducing the amount of unused chemicals at the end of the research.
Green Chemistry
Chemicals are necessary for experimental work but what thought is put into
chemical choice and the waste or by-products that result from it? The
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a tool, the
Green Chemicals Alternative Purchasing Wizard, which assists researchers
to reduce the production of hazardous waste by identifying environmentally
preferred chemicals where available. The search function of the tool allows
the user to search by:
the chemicals or process to be replaced or modified, or
an alternative chemical or process that exists.
Selecting green
chemistry
options can
reduce the
toxicity of
experiments.
For more information go to ehs.mit.edu/site/content/green-chemical-alternatives-purchasingwizard.
The Royal Australian Chemical Institute presents Green Chemistry Awards for fundamental
and innovative chemical methods in pollution prevention. For more information visit
www.uq.edu.au/research/rid/awards-green-chemistry-challenge-awards.
Waste chemical
Remember: one process, one waste bottle. Do not use someone else’s waste bottle and
don’t let someone else use yours! Hazardous reactions and explosions have occurred by
adding incompatible chemicals.
2
Keep chemical waste streams separate.
Sometimes the wastes can be recycled or treated
before disposal. If you mix wastes, apart from
possibly causing injury to yourself or others in the
lab, you may prevent a chemical from being treated
efficiently or reused.
Chemical wastes don’t mix
A student at Australian National University
was taken to hospital with first-degree burns
to her face, hands and chest and 200 people
were evacuated after an explosion in her lab.
She poured her waste chemicals into a waste
bottle that held existing chemicals from
another experiment. The two chemicals were
not compatible and caused the explosion.
2
Canberra Times, Claire Low, Lab explosion forces ANU evacuation, 24 March 2010,
www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/lab-explosion-forces-anu-evacuation/1784632.aspx
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Issue No. 3
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The University of Queensland
Green Labs Program
When you plan your experiments make sure each process has a
separate waste container that is labelled with a Chemical Store
generated label. Labels can be requested from the Chemical Store
website: chemstore.science.uq.edu.au.
Waste bottle barcodes
All waste containers must have a Chemical Store barcoded
label. If you order your waste bottle from the Chemical Store
they will label the bottle for you with the barcode and all the
required information. If you are using your own chemically
compatible, leak proof chemical waste container you must
order a barcoded label from the Chemical Store.
The waste generator’s name (e.g. your name), must be included, along
with the School/Centre, Building No, and contact phone number. The
Chemical Store looks at all the waste that is generated and will
sometimes contact a waste generator if they believe they can assist
them with their chemical management.
Unknown waste?
There is no such
thing as an unknown
chemical waste. If
wastes are not
labelled correctly, the
University has to pay
to determine the
composition before it
can be disposed of.
The offending lab
will be issued a
disposal surcharge!
Do you need to dilute?
How much water is being used to rinse bottles? The Queensland Urban Utilities’ Trade
Waste Sewer Acceptance Criteria specify that chemicals cannot be put down the sewer if
they are over certain concentrations. These wastes are instead put into waste bottles. In
addition the glassware is also rinsed out several times with that water also going into the
waste container. All this water dilutes the waste chemical in the waste container and
increases the cost of disposal as it must all be treated as the concentrated waste. Therefore
consider the amount of water used to rinse equipment and once glassware has been rinsed
several times it can then be rinsed with the water going down the sink.
Return empty bottles for reuse
In many cases, empty chemical bottles can be returned to the Chemical Store for reuse as a
chemical waste bottle. Refer to the UQ’s Chemical Waste Procedure to find out more or
contact the Chemical Store [email protected] to confirm what bottles can and can’t be
returned for reuse.
If your bottle can be returned, do not rinse or deface the label as it is necessary to know
what was in the bottle before it can be reused to prevent unwanted reactions. Visit the
Chemical Store website on chemstore.science.uq.edu.au to arrange collection of your waste
bottles. Where possible, the Chemical Store will recycle any excess waste bottles.
Size does matter
Is it possible to reduce the number of experiments or the scale of your experiments?
Micro-scale experiments use fewer chemicals and produce less waste than a larger scale
experiment.
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The University of Queensland
Green Labs Program
Don’t store chemicals in fume cupboards
Generally a chemical is stored in a fume cupboard because it starts vaporising and emitting
odours. To make it safe for lab users, the researcher may store it in the fume cupboard so
the vapours are removed. Generally chemicals vaporise because the bottle seal breaks
down over time and chemical leaks out. The Chemical Store has a range of different bottle
tops and seals and should have one to fit your bottle.
This not only makes it safe for lab users but also reduces energy consumption through
inappropriate use of the fume cupboard and vapours being released into the atmosphere.
Email the Chemical Store at [email protected]. (For more information on
requirements for storage of chemicals, please refer to Australian Standard AS2243.)
What goes up…
A few fume cupboard ducts have scrubbers to remove some chemicals from the exhaust,
however, most ducts have no treatment. What is released into the fume cupboard and
sucked up into the duct is diluted with air and discharged into the atmosphere. If less toxic
chemicals can be used for the experiments then less toxic chemicals are being released into
our atmosphere.
Track that chemical
There are several methods used at the University to keep tabs on
chemicals. Some of the more modern systems involve putting
barcodes on every chemical bottle that enters the lab and scanning
them out when they are empty. This allows chemicals to be assigned
to a person or a room and provides a relatively up to date inventory at
any given moment.
Barcoding each
chemical bottle can
provide up-to-date
chemical inventories.
Benefits include:
Tracks quantities and types of chemicals being purchased and stored in the building.
Chemical inventories can be obtained at any time and are relatively accurate. This
can assist lab managers to track quantities of chemicals purchased. This is helpful
for safety audits and to inform the fire brigade in the unlikely event of an incident.
Chemical swapping and sharing within the building – if all researchers have read-only
access to the database they can check to see if anyone else has the chemical they
want. This works especially well for those one-off chemical uses and reduces
chemical waste.
When projects are completed, chemicals can be tracked and removed so that no
unidentified or unclaimed chemicals linger on shelves around the building.
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The University of Queensland
Green Labs Program
Disadvantages include:
It works well for new buildings, however it can be quite time consuming to put a bar
code on every chemical in existing areas.
It requires all chemicals to enter the building at a central location.
Visiting researchers often bring chemicals with them. These chemicals also need to
be bar coded.
It requires on-going time for someone to manage the process.
Chemical handover
When projects are finished, sometimes chemicals are forgotten and left behind. Quite often
these chemicals are produced from honours and higher degree research projects. These
chemicals are the responsibility of the supervisor, but the supervisor may not be aware of
them.
There are several strategies currently used by lab managers within UQ to help reduce those
forgotten chemicals.
Chemical management forms part of the exit interview with a full handover of all
chemicals.
Withholding $5,000 from the project grant to be returned when the chemicals are
cleaned up. This is approximately how much it costs for staff from the Chemical
Store to remove and properly dispose of the unwanted chemicals.
Applying labels or experiment ID tags to chemicals and waste chemicals which
include the researcher’s name and project allow lab managers to know which
chemicals can be disposed of when researchers leave. This is good practice for all
researchers and the Sustainability Office can provide Label your space stickers for
this purpose.
For further information contact:
Sustainability Office
Property and Facilities Division
Ext. 69959 Email: [email protected] Internet: www.uq.edu.au/sustainability
Chemical Management
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