CRTS:Chemical Waste Where Does It Go
This page contains more information about where all the chemical wastes go and how they are treated after leaving the Chemistry Building in South Kensington.
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General Waste Streams
The four main waste streams are packaged and sent off by two contractors to three different locations.
Hydrocarbon Solvent Waste
Hydrocarbon Solvent Waste is perhaps the most obviously valuable, despite (from a Chemistry point of view) being heavily contaminated. When considered as fuel, the concentrations of these contaminants are sufficiently negligible, in fact the Hydrocarbon Solvent Waste is even used to dilute Chlorinated Solvent waste until it is under the accepted limit allowing it to be burnt as fuel. After mixing in the UK the fuel is sent off to the 'CEMEX' industry.
Our solvent waste is transported to the Netherlands where it is actually sold on at a profit and burnt as fuel to dry out concrete mixes in a kiln.
Chlorinated Solvent Waste
Rather surprisingly (again, for a Chemist) the Chlorinated Solvent Waste also makes its way to the CEMEX industry as fuel. At the contractor's site in the UK it is mixed with the Hydrocarbon Solvent Waste, at a ratio of approximately 1:4 Chlorinated:Hydrocarbon. As above, the waste solvent fuel mix is shipped to the Netherlands where it is burnt to dry out concrete mixes in a kiln.
Silica Waste
Unfortunately, Silica Waste cannot practically be burnt for any energy return. However, it is still incinerated at a site in the UK, so it is important that heavy metals do not get into this waste stream.
Clinical Waste
Clinical Waste, for its very nature, must be incinerated. The majority of our sharps are not dangerously contaminated however, because they can be perceived as constituting a bio-hazard they must be destroyed by incineration. For this reason again, it is important that heavy metals do not get into this waste stream.
Lab Smalls
Lab smalls are somewhat more complicated than any of the other waste streams, most evidently because they cannot be or have not been generalised under other forms of waste.