School of Infection & Immunity

Waste Disposal

DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in England and Wales) and SEPA (Scottish Environmental Protection Agency) state a 'Duty of Care' for all creators of waste to take all reasonable steps to keep waste safe and secure and that you must prevent it causing pollution or harming anyone.

All non-hazardous waste in University buildings is disposed via bins emptied by cleaners. Only black bin bags are used for non-hazardous waste, and therefore should not be used for hazardous waste. Non-hazardous waste items that are too large for bins in labs or offices should be taken directly to the larger bins outside the building, or arrange with Estates and Buildings to remove it for you - there may be a charge for this service, check with the appropriate budget holder and check with the building superintendent, Graham Tobasnick, for procedural guidelines before requesting this service directly from Estates and Buildings. Note: all FBLS-owned PAT-labelled equipment that is thrown out MUST be notified to Jim Scott or John McDougall so that the database can be updated.

Broken Glass

Each laboratory should have a clearly-labelled deposit point for clean broken glass. Microbiologically-contaminated glass should be autoclaved prior to disposal.

Sharp blades and needles

These must be discarded into a CinBin. Full cinbins must be sealed, labelled and disposed of as clinical waste. Arrangements for uplift are available from your floor manager.

Reusable glassware and plasticware

Small items should be fully immersed in disinfectant solution. Large glassware should be filled with disinfectant. Pasteur pipettes should be filled with disinfectant before removal of the teat. Heavily contaminated glassware may be autoclaved, but do not leave disinfectant in any item prior to autoclaving.

General contaminated plastic waste should be placed directly into waste disposal bags. All plastics which are, or may be, contaminated with a micro-organism or the molecular products of a genetic modification procedure must be autoclaved prior to disposal. Plastics used only for biochemical work should be put into a sealed bag before being included with non-hazardous waste.

Recycling and Waste Awareness

The University recycling policy actively encourages paper recycling. Transparent recycling bags and holders are available from Graham Tobasnick and are emptied by the cleaning staff as part of the regular service.

Batteries : for regular use of standard AA batteries, consider buying rechargeable ones. Large batteries and significant volume of batteries should be disposed via Estates and Buildings, not non-hazardous waste.
Light tubes  should be disposed via Estates and Buildings
Large boxes  don't always crush easily, flatten them before disposal to prevent 'bulking up' in bins.
Toner cartridges for printers: FBLS stores provide a collection point for recycling.

Electricity: Don’t depend on stand-by power which (most commonly) uses about 60% of full power where it is unnecessary