Disposal of Dissection Material

[Wayne]

I was wondering how people dispose of their biological waste after a dissection?

Depending on what was being dissected I would get the students to wrap it in newspaper and put in rubbish bin or just straight into the bin. I would remove the bin from the classroom at the end of the dissection and store it until the end of the day and then take it out the big garbage bin which is collected every day by our waste disposal company.

However yesterday, on my day off, a teacher got a farmer to bring in the whole digestive system of a sheep, nobody knew it was happening including me. When he was finished with it, threw it in the large bin outside, which sits in the sun (a warm 27ºC yesterday) and is easily accessed by students. Needless to say the powers to be weren't too pleased, and want us to find an alternative means of disposal.

So thought it was good time to find out what others do, whether we have been disposing it incorrectly or there is a better way or if other schools do what we do.

[Ian]

Our garbage is only collected once a week, so I put all the dissection rubbish into a chest freezer until the afternoon before collection day, and then (usually) forget to put it in the big bins before I go home. (at the moment, my chest freezer is getting a bit full!)

Ian

[Narelle01]

i just wrap it in many layers of newspaper then tie it up in a plastic shopping bag, then out to the skip..
Nothing special.

[dime]

Like Ian I freeze the small stuff, and put it out when the collector comes. But for a digestive tract, and it is usually for the Ag teacher, they have to dig hole in the ag plot and bury it when finished. It would not fit in the freezer, that's my story, and it is pretty pongy.

[Wayne]

Just as I thought, people would just put it out in the garbage. Guess I'm lucky that we have garbage collection every day.

I feel it was just a knee jerk reaction from what happened yesterday saying not to dispose of it in the garbage. I'm sure when I say it is ok to do it and other schools use the same method they will relent.

Now just have to make sure the said teacher follows the protocols (won't hold my breath as it usually goes in one ear and out the other with him) and doesn't stink the school yard out again!

[RosalieM]

I double bag it in garbage bags and put in the freezer (if it fits) and, like Ian, usually forget to put it in the bin till I can't fit anything else in there (and it is just a small freezer! One of those ones at the bottom of the fridge). I think rather than changing your system, which seems to work for you, it is a good opportunity to prove your worth and point out that you are there for a reason and pracs need to go through you! Even if you knew about it but the teacher did the rest you could have explained your disposal procedure to them and prevented the smelly outcome.

Having said that, I am not perfect! One time it was really cold and my freezer was full so I risked putting some Heart/lungs in the garbage bin outside the labs one Friday afternoon. Unfortunately the sun decided to show up that weekend (at the time I had almost forgotten it existed) and when I came in Monday morning the poor maintenance guys had had to take the wheelie bin all the way to the ag plot to bury the contents. The story goes that you could smell it from all over the school! A very big "Oops!". Sorry to the neighbouring residents!! Won't be doing that again...

[Wayne]

Like Ian I freeze the small stuff, and put it out when the collector comes. But for a digestive tract, and it is usually for the Ag teacher, they have to dig hole in the ag plot and bury it when finished. It would not fit in the freezer, that's my story, and it is pretty pongy.

We would love to have some ground to be able to dig a hole! We are a typical inner city school, not much space at all let alone green space!

[DavidPeterson]

I normally freeze offal etc and place in main skip bin on the day that it will be emptied.

On one occasion about 10 years ago an Ag teacher had asked me to obtain a cow's womb. She had been lucky enough once in previous years to have found a foetal calf intact and asked me to see if the local meatworks/abbatoir could try and provide the same again. When we got it and cut it open, the calf must have been in its last few days of developement and was way past being foetal!
We took it down to our school farm and buried it...

With respect to digestive tracts, my supplier (the same meatworks as above) informed me 2-3 years ago that they were regulated not to provide such material due to possible health/bacterial issues.

[linotas]

We just drop it and put in it the outside bin that gets emptied daily. The maintenance staff know it is there. Other school we get the skip collected weekly so I freeze and then in the skip. This is nothing to do with smell but more to do with animals getting at it as we are on the suburban fringe

[Wayne]

Thanks for all the replies, helped greatly.
I had a meeting with the powers to be and went armed with your responses, amongst other things and it was decided that there had just been an over reaction to a one off incident. So I don't have to change any of MY method of desposal, but a certain teacher was going to get a talking to. So all good as far as I'm concerned!

[RosalieM]

Nice to have a happy ending! Love it when we win