Chemical Clean-Up

In my Sophomore Year, I started cleaning up the back log of chemical waste that had accumulated from my high school's chemistry class. Most of the waste was solutions so the goal was to purify and neutralize them to a point where they were safe for drain disposal. 

Process/Procedure

The vast majority of the waste cleared was metal ion waste so I developed the following procedure:

1. Determine all ions in solution using various tests

2. Determine what was safe for drain disposal and what needed to be removed

3. Precipitate ions using Sodium Hydroxide or Sodium Carbonate

4. Use vacuum filtration to remove precipitates

5. Neutralize solution using indicators and acids

6. Dispose solutions down the drain

Other waste was handled on a case by case basis using chemical disposal manuals from Flinn Scientific