Disposing of Waste and Excess Chemicals from School Science and Art Programs

Disposing of Waste and Excess Chemicals from School Science and Art Programs

How to use the FREE disposal services in King County:

·  North and South Seattle Household Hazardous Waste Facilities

·  Factoria and Auburn SuperMall Hazardous Waste Drop-off Facilities

·  Wastemobile.

This service is provided to all small businesses in King County, including schools, by the Local Hazardous Waste Management Program in King County (LHWMP). We currently have plans to offer this service through at least 2010. (We hope to offer it on a permanent basis.)

Procedures for teachers and school district staff:

Contacts:

·  Be sure you know who your district hazardous materials or facilities manager is. They will have lots of information for you about how the disposal of hazardous waste is handled in your district.

·  Lisa Niehaus, Health & Environmental Investigator, LHWMP, , PH: 206-263-3046, Fax 206-263-3070

·  Dave Waddell, Health & Environmental Investigator, LHWMP, , PH 206-263-3069, Fax 206-263-3070

·  Julie Mitchell, King County,

·  Jim Talbot, City of Seattle,

There are several options for properly disposing of hazardous waste from schools in King County. The one described here does not cost any money so there is no budget impact. It does require a bit of work and time from the teachers/school staff.

1. Plan on borrowing a District vehicle to use to deliver the waste chemicals. (Do not use a personal vehicle; your insurance will not cover damages caused by transporting commercially generated hazardous waste.)

2. Contact Lisa Niehaus or Dave Waddell from LHWMP to determine whether or not your school needs a visit from our staff prior to disposal or not. If so, we will schedule it with you, and if not we’ll make sure you understand your next steps which are also described below.

3. Contact the other science and art teachers in your school to determine who has chemicals needing disposal. Be efficient; make one trip. Put a high priority on disposal of:

·  mercury compounds and thermometers etc. (banned in schools),

·  high-risk chemistry chemicals,

·  chemistry waste,

·  biology waste,

·  lead-base pottery glazes, and

·  other lead-based and heavy metal-based art products.

4. Fill out this form. http://www.lhwmp.org/home/BHW/documents/0901ManifestFormLTR.pdf.

·  You must write out the name of each waste in English. H2NO4 is not acceptable. Use “Nitric acid”, “Potassium permanganate”, etc.

·  You must list the numbers and sizes of the containers

·  You must list the hazard class of each waste – Toxic, Oxidizer, Reactive, Flammable, etc.

·  Incomplete labeling will not be accepted.

·  Unidentified chemicals will not be accepted.

·  Non-hazardous chemicals will not be accepted.

·  Very highly hazardous materials will not be accepted. See http://www.lhwmp.org/home/BHW/documents/1001SQGhazDISPfly.pdf for the list.

5. Send your completed form to Lisa or Dave. You can FAX (206-263-3070) or send it as a pdf by email. Once we approve it we’ll send it back as a pdf in an email to you.

6. Contact Jim Talbot or Julie Mitchell to arrange a date for drop-off. School chemicals will not be accepted with out prior arrangements with the staff.

·  Contact Jim at for the North and South Seattle Facilities.

·  Contact Julie at for Factoria, Auburn SuperMall and the Wastemobile.

Jim and Julie can give you the address and open hours for the facility you choose. Lisa and Dave can help with this step on a case-by-case basis.

7. Safely pack the chemicals for transport.

8. Take two copies of the signed form and the chemicals in a school-owned vehicle to one of the disposal facilities.

Questions? Call Lisa or Dave. More information? Try the Local Hazardous Waste Management Program’s web site http://www.lhwmp.org/home/BHW/sqg.aspx

The alternative procedure requires your department to pay for the cost of disposing of your hazardous waste. It generally costs orders of magnitude more than purchasing the chemicals in the first place. Contact your district representative for information on preparing your wastes for disposal via this method. It is still important for hazardous materials to be removed from your school.

For help determining the primary hazards of the chemicals in your lab, and more take a look at the School Hazardous Chemical Database on our website http://www.lhwmp.org/home/educators/schoolchemicallist.aspx .