Waste Management

Waste management in a lab environment has many aspects. Types of waste include:

- Broken or redundant equipment

- Paper (for documents or hand towels)

- Chemicals, particularly liquids

- Heavy metals

- Biological waste

- Glass

- Sharps including syringes and related clinical waste

- Plastics: PET, HDPE, polystyrene, rubber etc

- Water (tradewaste)

- Recyclables

Waste auditing

To get accurate information and data regarding waste management, a waste audit is recommended. This involves segregating the contents of a typical bin and measuring the waste types and volumes. With this baseline information you can prioritise what you want to do with waste.

Waste Hierarchy

The waste management hierarchy is a tool to drive waste management decisions. It involves consideration of the following steps:

1. Waste avoidance (don't create it to start with)

2. Waste reduction

3. Waste reuse e.g. reuse of grey water

4. Recycling

5. Recovery e.g. methane into power from sewerage, metals from electronic waste

6. Treatment e.g. sterilising clinical waste

7. Disposal - the last resort!

Applying a waste type to the hierarchy will give the preferred management method, but the overall goal should be to eliminate.

Visit Resource Smart for more information:

http://www.resourcesmart.vic.gov.au/

Environmental Aspects and Impacts

Through an extensive research exercise that involved real time investigation at a range of "world's best practice" laboratories and theory research, our team of experts identified key environmental aspects and associated impacts. These include:

Environmental Aspects of a Typical Laboratory

- Immediate and global atmosphere
- Natural waterways (drains link to waterways)
- Air, ground and water related to waste management
- Flora and fauna

Environmental Impacts

- Pollution to waterways via stormwater or sewage
- Pollution to immediate surrounds that can cause damage to ecosystems
- Power use potentially leading to greenhouse emissions and damage from mining fossil fuels
- Paper use potentially leading to deforestation and loss of habitat
- Potential spills from chemical storage, handling and use
- Water use putting a strain on resevoirs
- General resource consumption leading to environmental damage i.e. salinity due to rising water tables, linked to deforestation (for end use paper, cardboard, timber etc)
- Waste generation and management (solid, liquid, gaseous, recyclables, sharps, clinical waste etc)
- Gas use (requires mining, piping etc)

The next step in environmental impact management is to do a risk assessment on each impact and decide actions to negate or minimise impact.

Environmental Aspects

Part of understanding environmental issues is understanding key words. In the next two blog posts we will be exploring two of these terms: "environmental aspect" and "environmental impact".

According to the international standard for environmental management systems (ISO 14001), "environmental aspects" are areas where a business, organisation, home or individual interacts with the environment. An example of environmental aspects at home include:

- Waste (generation and disposal)

- Gardens

- Hazardous chemicals stored at home

- Power, gas and fuel use

- Water use

Examples of environmental aspects in a business are very similar to home. Businesses have all the same environmental aspects as a home, but may also have aspects such as:

- Dust

- Odours

- Noise (although homes with musicians can have this aspect too!)

Of course, the level of environmental impact that a business has is greater than a home. Businesses typically have more waste, more power, more water and more potential for environmental incidences (such as a chemical spill).

The environmental aspects of a typical laboratory are:

(Research in this area will begin in mid-July)

The Eco-Friendly Laboratory Project

The potential to cause serious environmental harm in a laboratory is very high, depending upon what activities are carried out in the lab. This page is designed to provide laboratory technicians with information on how to protect the environment while at work. While there is plenty of useful information on this page, all laboratory environments are different and have unique environmental aspects. Readers should always conduct further research to identify the precise information and actions to take in relation to protecting the environment while working in their own labs.

The 2010 Eco-Friendly Laboratory Project

In 2010 a group of laboratory technicians and environmental experts collaborated to research the environmental impacts commonly found in laboratories.

1) Identify where environmental harm can occur in a laboratory
2) The level of harm that can occur
3) Methods to prevent or minimise environmental harm in laboratories
4) How to monitor laboratories to ensure no harm is caused