Due to new requirements being placed on the University by the state and by our waste brokers, we are forced to make several changes to our requirements for packaging radioactive dry waste. The two changes that will affect you most are (1) we will no longer accept red sharps containers and (2) we must have syringes without needles attached put in a rigid plastic container (syringes with needles continue to require a commercial sharps container). In addition, please note that we are asking that sharps containers not be bagged with other dry waste as was done in the past. Please refer to the User's Guide on the web for all requirements for packaging radioactive waste.
Fisher Scientific and other vendors offer most of the sharps containers they sell in your choice of red or white. We are asking you to choose the white. Also, we require a commercial sharps container only for syringes with needles. Other items can be placed in any plastic container with walls sturdy enough to prevent punctures. The University's approved vendor for laboratory plasticware is EMSCO Scientific (800-542-6026). Through their affiliates they offer, for example, thick plastic pails with lids that would be suitable for many laboratory sharps.
If your laboratory has begun filling a red sharps container with radioactive waste, once the container is full and the Radioactive Waste Tag attached, please contact us so we can arrange to have the container removed from your laboratory. You can do so either by emailing me or by using our "Radioactive Waste Program Questions & Comments" form on the web. Please note that these red sharps containers will not be picked up during regular waste collection, but will be removed separately.
This online version of the Radiation Safety User's Guide can be used for view-only purposes. However if you would like to have a pdf format of the same, click the PDF version link.
Radiation Safety Researcher's User Guide: [html] | [PDF, 219KB]