Disposal of Empty Containers of Hazardous Chemicals

This alert is to clarify the disposal of empty containers that once held hazardous chemicals.

For most hazardous chemicals, the container that once held them may be disposed of as non-hazardous solid waste i.e., in glass recycling or in the regular black bag trash.

This is true for Eppendorf tubes and pipette tips that once held hazardous materials such as formaldehyde, phenol and chloroform. For those tubes and tips where the hazardous chemical has not been used up in the experimental process, the PI or laboratory worker must empty the contents of the tubes into a container to be handled as hazardous waste. The empty tubes and tips may then be disposed of as non-hazardous waste in the regular trash.

For the group of acutely hazardous waste known as “P-Listed Waste”, empty containers cannot be disposed of as regular trash. For this group, which includes laboratory chemicals such as cyanide compounds, sodium azide and osmium tetroxide, the containers themselves are considered hazardous waste unless they are triple rinsed and the rinsate collected as hazardous waste.

The P-Listed chemicals can be found on our website at: http://www.med.nyu.edu/envservices/waste/Plist.html. Some of the compounds more frequently found in research laboratories are highlighted. PIs must ensure that chemicals used in their labs are checked against this list to determine if the lab uses any P-Listed chemicals and that containers are discarded properly.

If you have any questions about hazardous waste disposal, please contact Persis Luke at x33295 or by email at persis.luke@med.nyu.edu.