WASTE SOLVENT BOTTLE

Violent reaction occurred between isophthaloyl chloride and methanol when they were accidentally added in succession to the same waste solvent bottle. 

The soil in the funnel is washed free of excess reagent by five successive additions of 95% ethanol, allowing to drain between washings. A wash bottle containing ethanol enables the interior surface of the funnel, the outside of the stem, the exposed surface of the paper and the soil to be thoroughly washed. Any remaining ammonium ethanoate will elevate the final CEC value. The washings, which are flammable, should be collected in a waste solvents bottle for safe disposal. 

Unclip the receiving flask, dispose of the solvent into a waste solvent bottle and reattach the receiving flask to the apparatus. 

Empty the solvent collection flask into the appropriate waste solvent bottles. 

In addition to being harmful to the individual, many chemicals are hazardous to the environment, so waste chemicals must not be put down the sink or into the rubbish bins unless this is stated to be safe. Waste solvent and reagents must be put into appropriate waste bottles. Chlorinated and nonchlorinated solvents are usually kept separately and then sent for disposal by external contractors. Broken glass or needles and scalpels are to be disposed of in sharps containers. 

CAUTION. Sodium must be handled with great care and under no circumstances may the metal be allowed to come into contact with water as a dangerous explosion may result. Sodium is stored under solvent naphtha or xylene it should not be handled with the fingers but with tongs or pincers. Waste or scrap pieces of sodium should be placed in a bottle provided for the purpose and containing solvent naphtha or xylene they should never be thrown into the sink or into the waste box. If it is desired to destroy the scrap sodium, it should be added in small portions to rather a large quantity of methylated spirit. 

Even carefully built pipelines have been found to contain up to 10 tons of waste materials, mostly iron rust, sand, mud, and welding rods. Even shoes, gloves, and bottles have been removed from pipes. Cleaning can generally be achieved by pumping suitable solvents in pigging operations. 

All of our clothes were sent to a cleaners and we hired a different restoration company to come and clean everything in the house while we stayed in a hotel. I told the supervisor of this company that only nontoxic, natural products could be used in my house. She assured me that would be no problem, and that in three days I would be able to move back home. But when I walked in to inspect the house I could actually taste the chemicals they d used and my mouth and lungs burned. Someone from our insurance company found a spray bottle they d left behind in our rec room closet. That s how we found out they had used strong solvents. Eventually they came back and tried everything to make the house safe. They scrubbed with TSP and they scrubbed with vinegar. They tried everything in the world, but nothing worked. This house that had been custom built for us was now a toxic waste dump. 

Because all depolymerization processes will generate waste that may be classified as hazardous waste or at least chemical waste, it will always be economically preferable to separate as much non-PET material from the PET material as is practical. Traditional bottle washing procedures can produce used bottle flake that is clean enough to be used to make more bottles or somewhat less clean and less expensive material. Technologies have been proposed to dissolve the polyester scrap in appropriate solvents to separate PET from other materials such as cotton fiber or magnetic tape components [19]. 

If solvents are purchased in bulk (drams) they will normally need to be redistilled even for routine laboratory use. Large stills (about 5 litres) will normally be required for this purpose. Typical solvents requiring such stills are petroleum ether, ethyl acetate, dichloromethane and other solvents according to particular needs. There are many problems associated with routine distillation of all lab solvents stills take up valuable space large stills are hazardous the process is time consuming redistilled solvents are not always available when needed there is always a considerable volume of solvent wasted and disposing of these residues costs money. We have found that it is generally more efficient and cost effective to purchase bottled solvents that are sufficiently pure for routine use without distillation. We... 

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