Laboratory Fact Sheet
Acquisition of Chemicals
There are many opportunities within buying patterns to prevent pollution. Every planned purchase should start with the questions:
- Is material available from another lab or surplus stockroom?
- What is the minimum quantity that will suffice?
- Even though the price per cubic centimeter is cheaper when chemicals are bought in bulk, it is important to buy only as much as is needed. Extra chemicals more often than not must be disposed of as hazardous waste, an expensive process that more than overshadows the money saved on buying the chemical in bulk.
- How will the waste generated from this chemical be dealt with?
- If the disposal of a chemical is expensive and difficult, consider using a different chemical.
Other Acquisition tips relating to P2
- Purchase chemicals right before they are needed. This will prevent problems that happen in storage, as well as plan changes resulting in extra chemicals.
- Making mixtures of hazardous chemicals is serious business. By having professions do this, it saves the chemistry labs from mistakes that result in wasted chemicals and unnecessary hazardous waste.
Toxic Chemical Substitution
- There have been advancements recently in finding non-toxic or less-toxic chemicals to do jobs that have required toxic chemicals traditionally. The largest group is cleaning solvents. To determine options for solvent substitution, go to http://es.epa.gov/ssds/ssds.html, select Integrated Solvent Substitution Data System, and access it. From that page select Guided Query. There are many other tools at this site that could be used. Also try the Solvents Alternative Guide.
Solvent Distillation and Recycling
- If there are no substitution alternatives for the solvents used in the lab, consider assembling a benchtop distillation process so that the solvent can be extracted, cleaned, and re-used in the laboratory.
Micro-scaling
- This is a program that has been implemented in many laboratories around the country. Rather than doing experiments at the gram magnitude, shift to the microgram magnitude. After an initial investment in small, accurate equipment, a laboratory will save by buying fewer chemicals and creating less waste.
Update Laboratory Equipment
- In the last ten years, new tools to do laboratory research have been developed. This new equipment is more environmentally friendly than traditional equipment. For example, adding a specially designed lid to your used-solvent receptacles can control solvent emissions. California Pacific Labs have developed a new cap for used-solvent receptacles that will allow easy pouring while eliminating emissions of solvent fumes.
