Some of our teaching and research labs generate biohazardous waste. This is a special category of waste and cannot legally be treated in any California State University Long Beach (CSULB) laboratory for disposal as regular trash. It must be taken off campus by a specially licensed waste hauler and treated/disposed of at their facility. For our purposes, there are two main categories of Biohazardous waste:
These regulations define "infectious agents" to include any microorganism, bacteria, mold, parasite, or virus, including, but not limited to, organisms managed as Biosafety Level (BSL) 2, 3 or 4. The Chief of the Medical Waste Management Program at the California Department of Public Health has concurred with this definition.
Some of the research and lab exercises performed at CSULB generate waste which is designated BSL-2. If you don't know the biosafety level of the agents you work with you can find information in the CDC/NIH guidelines "Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories 5th edition" (2007), or the "NIH Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant DNA Molecules" (NIH Guidelines) April 2016. The ATCC website is also a handy place to look up the BSL of Bacteria, Fungi, viruses and other biological material. All of these resources are available online.
If you generate either of these waste streams, the CNSM Safety Office provides approved containers for the collection of this material. CNSM Safety or campus Environmental Health and Safety will pick up/exchange the containers when 3/4 full. Below are brief descriptions of the main forms in which theses wastes are generated and the appropriate waste receptacle for each:
BSL-1 waste should be labeled BSL-1 TRASH. Don't call it "Biohazardous" unless you want it processed as described above, keeping in mind this material is expensive to dispose of. It is understood that labs that generate both BSL-1 and 2 may have to consider all the waste "Biohazardous" due to the difficulty of reliably segregating the waste streams.
Recombinant materials (those that contain recombinant DNA or rDNA) including cells or plasmids that are NOT biohazardous may be autoclaved as a means of destruction prior to disposal in regular trash.
If you require assistance with biosafety level designation or determining if your waste stream constitutes biohazardous waste, please contact the CNSM Safety Office at ext. 5-5623.