Hazardous waste management in educational and research centers: a case study

Abstract

The hazardous waste management (HWM) practice at Tehran University of Medical Sciences Central Campus, Iran, was investigated in this study. Four schools were selected and the required information such as type and amount of wastes, temporary storage methods, waste discharge frequency, and final waste disposal methods using sampling, questionnaires, interviews with laboratory staff, and reference to available documents were gathered. The quantity of hazardous waste generation per year excluding the uncontrolled wastewater was found to be 2.072 tons per year. The obtained results show that wastes having features of being infectious, toxic, ignitable, carcinogenic, corrosive, and reactive were present at 32%, 28%, 16%, 14%, 8%, and 2%, respectively. In the central campus, hazardous solid wastes managed with household solid wastes and hazardous liquid waste were discharged into the sinks without any kind of control; improper HWM practices are evident from the point of waste production to final disposal.

Keywords:

• solid waste
• hazardous waste
• educational hazardous waste management
• academic laboratories
• Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the laboratory staff of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran, for their collaboration in this research.