Waste Disposal

Procedures for waste disposal procedures at King’s Buildings.

Please read this guidance together with the SBS Policy and Code of Practice on Waste Disposal available on the Health and Safety website.

Health and Safety - Laboratory waste

If you are unsure, please contact your buildings team for advice.

Key contacts

Non-lab waste

There are bins emptied by the cleaners throughout buildings for:

paper/cardboard,
plastics/cans,
food waste, and
general waste.

Please look carefully when disposing of waste:

Put your waste in the correct bin.
Do not put liquids in any of the bins.
Do not over-fill the bins.

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Laboratory Waste including hazardous (chemicals)

Please follow the guidance in the SBS Lab Waste flow chart below.

Flow Chart - Lab Waste (507.6 KB / PDF)

Waste type	Disposal or Stores drop off point
Clinical (yellow) waste bags, sharps bins and cytotoxic bins	Take to Stores or Stores drop off point for disposal.
Autoclave bags (no more than half-full)	Take to Wash-up and Media for disposal.
Hazardous waste (chemicals, rechargeable batteries etc.)	Must be disposed via a licenced waste contractor. For more information about hazardous waste, please see the Chemical and hazardous waste page. Chemical and hazardous waste

Waste type

Disposal or Stores drop off point

Clinical (yellow) waste bags, sharps bins and cytotoxic bins

Take to Stores or Stores drop off point for disposal.

Autoclave bags (no more than half-full)

Take to Wash-up and Media for disposal.

Hazardous waste (chemicals, rechargeable batteries etc.)

Must be disposed via a licenced waste contractor.

For more information about hazardous waste, please see the Chemical and hazardous waste page.

Chemical and hazardous waste

Plastic

Empty plastic chemical bottles should be rinsed out, the labels defaced and placed into the red bins.

Glass

Non-contaminated glass waste should be placed in your appropriate glass waste bin.

Large winchester bottles can be used to discard chemical waste.

There is a collection point for large Winchester bottles outside Waddington freezer room otherwise place into the relevant glass waste bins.

Please contact your building assistant if you require any Winchester bottles to collect chemical waste.

Polystyrene

Send these back to your supplier, if possible, otherwise place in the storage point for each building as detailed below:

Building	Collection Point
Ashworth complex	Ash2 loading bay (within black bags)
Roger Land	Inside black bag outside stores
Rutherford	In metal cupboard in Waddington-Rutherford link
Waddington	In black bags outside freezer room
Swann	Loading bay on level 1 or within the cages on level 2 and 5

Cardboard

Boxes should be collapsed down and taken to the appropriate waste collection trolley for the building – generally there is a rota to remove these to the outside bins.

If you have a large amount to dispose, please take these directly outside to the recycling bins.

For disposing of any small broken electrical waste, please take the items to the appropriate collection point in your building (see below) ensuring any lab equipment is clean and decontaminated with a decontamination certificate attached (download the certificate below).

Building	Collection Point
Ashworth complex	In metal cages outside Ash3 foyer
Roger Land	Blue trolley on ground floor near G.07
Waddington and Rutherford	Waddington-Rutherford link (beneath the stairs)
Swann	Old Stores

SBS Declaration of contamination status certificate (88.03 KB / PDF)

Electrical – large, or refrigerated items

For any large or refrigerated items, please complete a WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment recycling) uplift request.

Ensure each item has the decontamination certificate completed and attached.

WEEE uplift form

SBS Declaration of contamination status certificate (88.03 KB / PDF)

The item may need to stay in the lab until collection by the contractor as storage space is limited.

Printer Cartridges

These should be taken to the following collection points in the building:

Building	Collection Point
Ashworth complex	Place in the collection box in the Ash1 foyer opposite printer room
Roger Land	Take these to Stores
Waddington and Rutherford	In the Waddington locker room to be collected by Stores
Swann	Old Stores to be collected by Stores

Confidential Waste

Please contact your building assistant for a bag and to arrange disposal.