Properly separating chemical waste is one of those things keep you out of jail or the hospital.  There’s a reason why I list in as one of the four-and-one pillars of lab safety.

The main danger from waste is mixing incompatible wastes.  Mixing bleach and ammonia famously gives off chlorine gas.  Others lead to explosions.

This is why I require everyone to identify the exact nature of the waste their experiments will produce.  As in, the chemical names, as well as a detailed description of chemical incompatibilities, and which chemical category it falls into.

In our lab we generate the following waste categories:

• Acid waste
• Alkaline waste
• Organic waste, halogenated
• Organic waste, non-halogenated
• Oil waste

Waste is deposited in 10L carboys (we used to use 50L carboys, but they fill too slowly and hence pose a risk).  Just to make sure that people have the best information they can get for their waste, I make sure to list the different chemicals on the waste label.  Here’s an example of the waste labels from our labs.  Feel free to copy if if you’d like.