Australia's Science Forum

Yay! first day back and the little darlings are already mixing stuff up
Ive been given back a batch of chems mixed up - possible Cuso4 mixed with universal indicator plus hcl. + mg maybe.
How do I dispose of this. When I get chemicals back like this usually I mark it unknown and get rid of it at the end of the year by chemical disposer.
Any other ideas please?

Oh by the way welcome back

You could try Evaporating basin, and see how that goes?

Into a waste bottle, labelled with what it possibly contains. There are too many unknowns to save this.
And make sure you let the teacher know you are not happy with this. The class should be banned from doing any pracs until the culprits apologise!

Use sodium carbonate to precipitate out the Cu and Mg, decant the solution and bring to neutral and pour down the sink. Then wrap up the solids and dispose of in the rubbish.

Just check that it is okay to tip down the sink - we're on a septic system and cannot put anything like this down the sink. Has to be held for collection.

I usually collect this sort waste as CuSO4 cant go down the sink. I put it all in a container, evaporate it in the fume hood, when it's not in use, then it gets collected in chem waste. I don't put much into the rubbish as it will leech out into the environment. Note:- the container must comply with your waste disposal company.