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Laboratories
Many types of waste are produced from the various public and private academic, environmental, health care and industrial laboratories. Whether the lab is doing routine tests or conducting research, labs produce a wide range of wastes:
- Dual waste, such as body fluids and hazardous chemical waste
- Infectious waste, such as tissues, body fluids and sharps
- Liquids, such as aqueous solutions, alcohols, oils and solvents
- Sludges, which can be both aqueous and non-aqueous
- Solid materials, such as chemicals, glass, packaging, paper, samples and equipment.
Allina Medical Laboratories (Metro Hospitals) won a 2006 Governor's Awards for Excellence in Waste and Pollution Prevention for completing a system-wide chemical inventory analysis. All chemicals used in the laboratories were evaluated for health and pollution hazards. This resulted in the elimination of numerous highly toxic dyes and reagents, stains, other chemicals, and kits. Reducing hazardous waste (40,000 pounds), ethidium bromide waste (500 pounds), and water pollutants (72,000 pounds) saves over $31,000 annually.
Selecting a Laboratory Before purchasing lab services, be informed about the tests you may need and the services that labs offer. This fact sheet outlines what should be considered before selecting a lab.
General Pollution Prevention
ChemAlliance Under “Laboratory” under “Process Target” find brief case studies of laboratories that have used chemical recovery/reuse, energy conservation and process changes to reduce lab waste. Examples include:
Laboratory Pollution Prevention Checklist A five category checklist outlines ways to prevent lab waste,
from Ohio EPA.
Lab Receives Pollution Prevention Awards Los Alamos National Laboratory eliminated the hazardous chemical formamide from its process to determine the nucleotide sequence of DNA.
Minnesota Department of Agriculture Eliminates Methylene Chloride Use in the Lab MDA reduced the use of methylene chloride in its environmental analysis work. The lab eliminated 99 gallons of the solvent use annually. Productivity increases and reduced costs saved $39,900 a year.
If you have environmental questions related to laboratories, contact Catherine Zimmer at 612.624.4635 or e-mail Catherine. From greater Minnesota, call 800.247.0015 and ask for Catherine.
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Laboratories
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