Greening the Lab Program - Lab Recycling & Reuse Guideline

EHS website:
Facilities website:

Items

Aluminum foil

Batteries

Cardboard

Containers (Food/Drink) – aluminum, metal, glass, plastics #1-7

Electronic waste (monitors, computers, etc)

Glass & plastic chemical bottles

Ice packs

Light Bulbs

Packing peanuts & materials

Paper

Pipette tip boxes

Plastic bags

Styrofoam shipping containers

TechnoCycle (DVDs, CDs, cell phones, chargers, etc)

Toner & Ink Cartridges

Wafer boxes

White goods (refrigerators, air conditioners, large pieces of lab equipment)

Process

1)Aluminum Foil – clean tin/aluminum foil can be placed in the single stream recycling bin

2)Batteries – Place batteries in a Battery disposal bin. Do not send through interdepartmental mail. Battery disposal bins are located in Facilities Stockroom, E19-107; Facilities, NE49-2000; VWR Stockroom, 56-068; EHS, N52-496; all residence halls; and most Distributed Mail Centers (DMCs).Batteries from old cell phones should be removed from the cell phones and recycled in this manner. Terminals should be taped to prevent transfer of energy. Read more at the Facilities Recycling website -

3)Cardboard – break down and fatten boxes and leave near recycling bins for custodial services to remove; remember to keep some for chemical or biological shipments, as well as clean broken glassware collection. Flattened cardboard can also be left in hallways along the wall if room is limited within your lab.

4)Containers(Food/Drink)– (aluminum, metal, glass, plastics #1-7) ensure items are clean & empty, place insingle stream recycling bin.

5)Electronic Waste – e-waste items; such as, monitors, CPUs, televisions, printers, copiers, electronic equipment and their associated components (mice, keyboards, speakers, etc) should be managed as Electronic Waste through the Department of Facilities. Schedule a pick up of these items using the Department of FacilitiesAtlas request formfor free removal (if weighing less than 50lbs).

6)Glass & Plastic chemical bottles – ensure bottles are empty of all liquids; triple rinse bottleswith 50mL of DI water to remove potential odors. Collect the first rinse with your waste stream and dispose of the second and third down the drain. Remove or deface the label, place in a box for custodial services to remove, with or without the cap. Please DO NOT tripe rinse Acutely Hazardous or P-Listed materials as this creates more waste, rather red tag the empty container and dispose of as hazardous waste. Contact the EHS Office () for details & assistance. Please note that Pyrex, broken glass, light bulbs and ceramic items are not acceptable within this stream.

7)Ice Packs – contact vendor to see if they’ll take back for reuse. Due to the polymer gel contents these items cannot be placed in recycling bins.

8)Light Bulbs – Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulbs contain mercury and must be collected for recycling. 4’, 6’ & 8’ Fluorescent Lamps are collected for recycling by the Department of Facilities Repair & Maintenance Mechanics. If your lab has a CFL bulb to recycle place the intact bulb in your SAA and place a request for Hazardous Waste pickup. Indicate “mercury containing lamp” on the red tag and mark “toxic”. Contact the Department of Facilities via Atlas for assistance or EHS at .

9)Packing peanuts & materials – put into envelope or box, label as packing materials and send inter-company mail to WW15 (Mail Distribution Center) for reuse; remember to keep some for future shipments.

10)Paper – If you can rip it you can recycle it! Place all paper materials in the single stream recycling bin.

11)Pipette Tip boxes – decon items by spraying with ethanol solution and either utilize the vendor take back program (see below for details) or place non-contaminated boxes with a recycling number 1-7 in the single streamrecycling bin.

12)Plastic bags – collect plastic shopping bags and other thin plastic items (plastic bubble wrap) and mail to NW56 attn: MIT Recycling. (Custodians do not pick these up for recycling)

13)Styrofoam shipping containers – contact your vendor to see if they’ll take back the container for reuse; use for future shipments requiring dry ice. Not allowed in MIT recycling stream. Alternatively, you can bring your clean Styrofoam containers to one of the recycling locations on campus, as of September 2014 – Koch Loading Dock (76), Brain & Cog Loading Dock (46).

14)TechnoCycle – Trash related to daily-use technologies; such as, cell phones, PDAs, pagers, floppy disks, CDs, DVDs, video tapes, wires and InkJet Cartridges are all considered to be TechnoCycle. Drop these items off at Mail Distribution Centers or bring them to the recycling stations throughout campus.

15)Toner & Ink Cartridges - All MIT Distributed Mail Centers contain drop boxes for used toner cartridges. If your mail room needs a bin, or your bin needs emptying, submit a request to Facilities Recycling in Atlas.

16)Wafer boxes – utilize vendor take back program; if plastic & numbered 1-7, place clean items in the single stream recycling bin.

17) White goods–follow the EHS Deactivating and Decommissioning Equipment SOP and work with the MIT Property Office before contacting the Department of Facilities to schedule a pick up for removal and recycling. Contact the EHS Office with specific questions at .

Vendor Take Back Programs:

VWR – Pipette Tip Boxes – Stephanie Grandbois, 1.800.932.5000,,

Corning – Pipette Tip Boxes, Plastic serological pipette wraps, Centrifuge tube racks, centrifuge tube bags – Pam Murtagh, 1.800.492.1119x8048, ,

USA Scientific – Pipette Tip Boxes – Joe Marinaro, 1.800.872.3847x518, ;

September 4, 2014 – version6