Lab packing is needed in many different industries, ranging from schools to hospitals and more! Properly identifying, organizing, and disposing of waste is something that should be taken very seriously. If you don’t organize and contain materials the right way, leaks can occur inside of barrels, which can potentially cause reactions that put people in the nearby vicinity at risk.
The good news is that proper lab packing is something that can be taught, and it’s far from an impossible task. Today, we’ll talk about what to do to perform lab packing in a safe manner.
Identification
Identification is the first step in the lab packing process. This is when you identify all of the chemicals that are outdated, expired, or damaged so that you know to dispose of them. The identification process needs to be thorough, going over everything that will go inside of the lab pack and the manner in which things will be organized. This needs to be done before the disposal process begins.
Separate Your Substances
You’ll need to have a licensed chemist supervising the operations of combining and separating your chemicals. With their help, you’ll get your chemicals placed into the proper containers. Make sure to pack items with similar traits together (e.x. flammable items with other flammable items or corrosive items with other corrosive items).
Coding System for Hazardous Waste
If you need a guide on how to safely and effectively perform lab packing, the Resource Recovery and Conservation Act (RCRA) puts the standard in place for how you can identify hazardous waste the right way. This act has a coding system that the industry should follow, and with this system in place, everyone who manages waste will know what kind of hazardous waste they are handling. These are some of the coding system’s examples:
- D001: represents flammable liquids
- D002: refers to materials that are thought to be corrosive
- D003: is meant to inform people of reactive materials
Where Do The Lab Packs Go?
The job of lab packing services is to get waste transported safely to wherever it needs to go, according to regulations in their local area. There are different kinds of containers meant to hold waste, and each type of container is meant to abide by a different land disposal restriction, or LDR, treatment standard. To make things as simple as possible, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will usually provide different treatment standards that let people incinerate lab packs instead.
Let AEG Environmental Help You With Our Lab Packing Services!
If you’re in need of lab packing services, our team of experts is ready to answer the call! Contact us here and see how our lab packing services can be of help to you!