FAQ

The Division Cleanup Planning Guide is a good place to start. You may also contact your EHS Division Liaison and the Facilities Work Request Center, x6274, for assistance in planning your division’s cleanup.

Planning lead time depends on the cleanup scope.  For instance, divisions can organize an office cleanup day in much less time than a lab cleanup day. Refer to the The Division Cleanup Planning Guide for example planning steps and timeline.

In general, keeping your space clean and safe is an important part of being a responsible steward of the Laboratory.  If you have questions about which accounts are appropriate for you to charge your time and other clean up costs to, contact your Division Business Office.

Large office and lab cleanups typically require extra recycling and waste containers. Your Generator Assistant will arrange for hazardous, radioactive and medical waste containers. The Facilities Work Request Center (x6274) will arrange for extra trash and recycling containers. Property will coordinate salvage hopper delivery and removal.

Your division cleanup point of contact will schedule the cleanup day and time. Your division management will determine which groups participate.

Consult with your division management and division cleanup point of contact to make alternate arrangements.

It is incumbent upon all Berkeley Lab employees to be good stewards of the public trust.  LBNL is a publicly funded institution, and keeping the spaces you use and occupy clean and safe is part of being a responsible steward.  Additionally, participating in a clean up helps our community and will ultimately enable you to better carry out your job responsibilities.

Your division will designate a division cleanup point of contact. Operations will also provide cleanup day coordination support.

Division personnel are responsible for cleaning their spaces.

In general, keeping your space clean and safe is an important part of being a responsible steward of the Laboratory. If you have questions about which accounts are appropriate for you to charge your time and other clean up costs to, contact your supervisor.

You can reduce your lab cleanup burden by periodically excessing equipment you no longer need. See the Courtesy Salvage Pickup Factsheet

Your division cleanup point of contact and the Operations team will assist you in determining which items can be recycled or reused. The Waste Diversion Guide for Laboratory Waste at LBNL provides comprehensive waste diversion information.

Your division cleanup point of contact and the Operations team will arrange for items to be removed.

Yes.  Operations provides onsite support during your division’s cleanup day.

E-waste is a popular, informal name for electronic products nearing the end of their “useful life.” Computers, televisions, cell phones, stereos, printers and copiers are common electronic products. Many of these products can be reused, refurbished, or recycled.

All electronic products should be placed on a pallet and kept in a covered area. Electronic products should not be placed in the scrap metal hoppers.

Metal scrap hoppers should be scheduled through Facilities Work Request Center (x6274) several days prior to the cleanup day.

Only scrap metal can go into metal scrap hoppers; no electronic equipment, equipment with DOE tags, chemicals, waste or garbage

Refer to the Excess Property for Salvage fact sheet.

Work activity owners or division operations personnel are responsible for identifying and characterizing hazardous materials.

To ensure compliance with applicable regulations, DOE orders, and LBNL policies, personnel must follow waste management requirements to identify, characterize, store, treat, and dispose of waste.

If you find a container of unknown material you suspect is hazardous, contact your division safety representative if the container cannot be safely handled. If it is safe to do so, mark the container with the date of discovery and the words “Unknown Waste – pending characterization.” The Generator Assistant will initiate any required sampling and analysis of the waste and ensure proper management of the waste upon completion of the waste characterization and hazardous waste determination. Generators and/or responsible divisions are accountable for characterizing and paying for analysis of “unknowns.”

The chemical owner is responsible for identifying surplus hazardous materials, inventorying items for disposal, and updating the Chemical Management System.

Contact your division’s Generator Assistant for assistance with waste characterization, segregation, packaging, and removal.

A waste is a by-product of your work or research that has no further use. If you work with chemicals, you are probably a hazardous-waste generator. A hazardous waste is any waste regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or the state of California. Some examples of hazardous waste are flammable liquids, corrosive liquids, such as strong acids and bases, solid oxidizers, wastes that contain heavy metals and halogenated organics, greases and oils)

Hazardous-waste regulations dictate that you, as the generator, are responsible for the complete and accurate characterization of your waste. You should request a pickup of your hazardous waste when: your container is full; the age of the container is approaching 275 days (nine months); or you no longer need the container to accumulate waste. Submit hazardous waste pickup requests via the Electronic Hazardous Waste Requisition System .

The Waste Management Group provides guidelines and assistance in setting up SAAs (section 1.3.1) and WAAs for the temporary staging of hazardous waste. Contact your Generator Assistant for support in setting up and maintaining a SAA or WAA.

Certain empty containers that previously held hazardous materials are exempt from hazardous-waste regulations and can be discarded as solid sanitary waste (trash) under the following conditions:

• The container must be less than 5-gallons in size.
• The container did not contain an extremely or acutely hazardous material.
• Without rinsing, the container contains no drainable or pourable liquid when held in any orientation.
• Without rinsing, the container contains no removable solids other than a thin, uniform layer of dried material or powder.

If your container meets the criteria listed above, the container may be thrown in the trash, and the following steps must be completed:

1. The container must be deleted from the Chemical Management System, and the bar code must be removed from the container.
2. The original label must be crossed out or marked with the word “EMPTY” to notify custodial staff, recyclers, or sanitary-waste engineers that it no longer contains hazardous materials, and can be discarded as solid sanitary waste.

LBNL’s Waste Management assists in providing an assortment of regulatory compliant containers for collecting waste. Information on containers is included on this list. For inquiry on ordering containers and disposing of the waste, contact your Generator Assistant. Information on obtaining medical/biowaste containers can also be provided by your Generator Assistant. Secondary containment and labels are also essential in collecting waste in containers. Your Generator Assistant can also help with providing these appropriate items, assist you with delivery times, and ensure you have compliant storage conditions.

In the event of a chemical spill, follow the S.W.I.M.S. procedure:

STOP and think: Stop working, Stop the spill, Assess the situation.

WARN others.

ISOLATE the area.

MONITOR yourself carefully and completely.

STAY in the area until help arrives.

Refer to the Chemical Hygiene and Safety Plan for more detailed emergency procedures.

Contact routine compressed gas suppliers (Praxair/Alliance or Progressive/Airgas) for removal of their cylinders.  For non-routine compressed gas cylinder removal, contact your Division Safety Coordinator or complete the Non-routine Cylinder Return Request form.