Implementation of the Chemical Waste Management Program in the Laboratories of the Federal University of Paraiba—UFPB/Brazil

ABSTRACT

Teaching and research activities in specific fields, such as technology and natural sciences, continuously produce chemical waste in their daily activities. Concerning the environmental impact and risk to human health in teaching and research activities, Brazilian universities have gradually started to draw up their Chemical Waste Management Program (PGRQ) in order to cope with potentially hazardous activities. In this context, the Federal University of Paraiba (UFPB), which has 130 graduate courses, 80 master’s/doctoral programs distributed on 5 campuses in the state of Paraiba/Brazil, is going through a process of implementing a chemical management program for such waste. Therefore, the objective of this article is to describe, through a quantitative and qualitative approach, the initiatives and activities adopted to implement the Chemical Waste Management Plan at UFPB. The study was conducted using data on regular collection from university campuses. Initially, proper chemical containers were distributed to collect and store liquid solutions from research activities and practical lab classes. In the first collection alone, 17,595 kg of environmental liabilities were collected. All collected chemical had their proper final treatment in industrial landfills or incinerated by the contracted company. In 2020, 21,132 kg of hazardous waste from classes A, B and E were collected. In comparison with the previous year, where 11,363 kg of waste were collected, there was an increase of 9769 kg of chemical waste. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic during the year 2021, a large part of the laboratories stopped or decreased their activities and there was a reduction in the amount of hazardous waste produced. UFPB currently has 59 registered points for storage of chemical waste and 21 points for voluntary delivery among its 04 campuses, serving more sloth’s 9000 people, including professors, technicians and graduate students. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.