jgourlay - 30-7-2008 at 13:47
I'm making an assumption, and please correct me if I'm wrong.
My assumption is that many if not most of you have had your chemical activities banned from the same facility where your spouse mixes up the coffee
and washes the baby bottles. Thus, you are experimenting elsewhere: a shed, garage, etc.
On my particular slice of this fair earth, I have no location where I can get the trifecta of power, water, and sewage. I can get power and water in
a couple of locations, but sewage is out unless I do without both power and water.
I imagine many of you are in a similar boat. So let's assume you have power and water, and having now successfully synthesized your first batch of
plutoniumhexacyanopoisenide, you now need to wash all your glassware. Whaddya do with the waste water? How do you collect it?
Right now I'm thinking about a 4' deep x 2' diameter hole in the ground, over which the shed (uh, lab) is built and centered over which is the sink
drain. I'm also thinking that if the lawns around me start sprouting 4 head earthworms and all my grass dies, I might end up regretting it.....
kclo4 - 30-7-2008 at 14:32
Well, most of the chemicals I deal with are often good for the lawn so i don't worry to much about it. That is stuff like Ammonium compounds,
Nitrates, Sulfates, Calcium, Potassium and other compounds.
However if I deal with something like plutoniumhexacyanopoisenide, which I almost never do, I try to dispose of it properly, by first turning it into
less toxic compounds and perhaps recycling the toxic metal salts (ppt of lead, nickel, and mercury into their metals or an insoluble salt.) and then I
pour the rest of the junk down the drain, after I have made it more environmentally friendly.
My situation is just like yours, I have running water and electricity and a drain that goes into my yard. Interestingly the plants around it get water
plus nutrients and grow a lot better. 
Things like solvents, metals, plant poisons, etc I keep until i have time to dispose of them in the toilet or something like that. However, I never
flush the REALLY nastiest, like Hg, or Pb, down the drain. Those are easy enough to get out of solution, and often you can find another use for them.
Good thing I don't use my Hg, and only have made a little bit of lead acetate recently!
DJF90 - 30-7-2008 at 14:41
Aluminium amalgam can be a useful reducing agent, but the fact I'd have to buy mercury, store it, and then have to deal with waste containg mercury
(even in minute amounts) is stopping me from making some. It is easier not to deal with mercury compounds in the first place. However I have two
mercury thermometers and if one breaks then I may consider keeping the mercury as it is only a small amount (compated to the 500g I'd have to buy ) for making such reagents. I know the sulphide is practically insoluble, but that
would mean dealing with H2S (to clean up aqueous solutions), which is not nice stuff... Is there an easy alternative?
kclo4 - 30-7-2008 at 14:52
Well, if you had Na2S/NaHS and you could perhaps do a double displacement, or something like that? If you are careful H2S isn't all that bad, just do
it in a well ventilated area, and stay away from it. Plus, you could have it in a sealed vessel and destroy the H2S with a solution of NaOH, or some
sulfite salt or H2SO3. H2S + SO2 = H2O + S I believe.
I acquired a large amount of Hg for free, but for much the same reasons, I haven't used it.
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=2356&a...
Klute - 30-7-2008 at 15:15
I seperate my waste in different types: the "clean" aqueous goes in a jerrican to be emptied in the waste water (brine washes, dH2o rincing of
apparatus, etc).
The aq. that contain a little amount of organic impurities are treated with H2O2/Fe2+ before been discarded in the waste water system.
The more dirty aq. solution are kept in specific jerrican, so are solution of heavy metals, and periodically brought to the closest chemical waste
facility, a bit expensive so I try to limit the amounts.
Most of the solvents I recycle. "Wet" acetone and mixtures of cheap solvents not worth seperating are kept and used to clean up organics from the
flasks and all.
These dirty washes, tars, organic junks etc are collected in a special jerrican to be brought to the local dumpyard which has a special place for such
waste (paint residus, etc)
Most of the solid wastes that can't be discarded in the sewers are also brought there (used silica).
I really advise you to check your local chemical waste facilities, the guys are more concerned about correctly treating chemicals than knowing why you
generate such waste, and are most of the time pretty happy that individuals don't just throw everything in the sewers to save a little money.
Correctly seperating wastes is primordial to avoid excessive amounts. there are a few good books on correctly treating chemical wastes, maybe there is
one or two in the SM library or the ref forum....
kclo4 - 30-7-2008 at 15:21
Klute, do you have any of the books, or know any of the names of the books off hand? 
Klute - 30-7-2008 at 15:30
Well, there are few at work, I will get the exact titles, but it's along the lines of this:
"Hazardous Chemical Waste Management" Juan J. Ferrada, Taylor & Francis
"Prudent Practices in the Laboratory: Handling and Disposal of Chemicals" online book
"Handbook of laboratory waste disposal"
"Chemical waste disposal guidelines", lots of books referenced there.
kclo4 - 30-7-2008 at 15:32
Thank you very much Klute! I'll check them out.
Klute - 30-7-2008 at 15:36
I'ev just checke dthe SM library, and I'm surprised to see no book on the subject. Pretty surprising as it's a universal issu, what ever
chemistry/recatiosn you are performing, and it needs to be dealt with even by begginers. I will go through the book thread and see if there are some
or not.
I f anyone knows of some online books, please post!
sparkgap - 31-7-2008 at 07:20
CRC Handbook of Laboratory Safety, Fifth Edition (from gigapedia) is nice. 
sparky (~_~)
woelen - 31-7-2008 at 09:26
For me, most waste simply goes down the drain. If I do experiments outside, without a sewer, I collect all stuff in a bucket and then it goes down the
drain. The following I dump without problems, provided the counterion is not toxic (in small quantities though of at most a few 100's of mg, I work at
a microscale):
- salts of ammonium and alkali metals
- salts of Mg, Ca, Sr (not of Ba!)
- salts of Fe, Cr (trivalent, otherwise reduce with acidified sulfite), Mn, Zn, Bi
- halogen-based ions (both the halogenides and the oxo-anions of it)
- sulphur-based ions (e.g. sulfate, dithionite, sulfite, etc., but also small remains of SOCl2, which are hydrolysed at once to SO2 and HCl).
- nitrogen-based ions, except azide.
- phosphorus-based ions, including stuff like H3PO4 and P4O10
- common acids and bases, if one is allowed to dump half a liter of concentrated NaOH or H2SO4 in the sink as cleaner, then my few ml's of acid do no
harm at all.
- ethanol and methanol, diluted with a lot of water
The following, however, I bring to a proper waste processing facility (and it is free as long as you do not bring waste more than 4 times a year):
- heavy metal salts and their solutions (Pb, Hg, Ag, Cu, Ni, Co, V, Mo, Cd, Ba)
- water soluble toxic organic compounds
- compounds based on Se, Te, As, Sb
I keep this kind of waste in a separate bottle and do not mix it with other waste, which only has stuff, which may be flushed down the drain.
Organic solvents I get rid of by evaporating them on a paper tissue, somewhere in the garden. When all has evaporated, I throw the paper tissue in the
bin with normal household waste.
If I do experiments, where I cannot flush any waste, then I collect it in a jerrycan. The more toxic waste I only produce in ml quantities and for
these I have 1 liter bottles. I them simply bring these bottles to the place where I do experiments.