3 replies to this topic

[Shere- Dean]

Good day,

 

My company has several expired agar in stock that is not being used. I would like to know the safest way to discard or dispose them. The brands in stock are, Accumedia, Neogen and Difo.

 

Thank you in advance.

[G M]

If you wanted to be cautious, I suppose you could run it through an autoclave or oven first to sterilize it like would typically be done for used media. 

 

Media that has never been used can typically be treated as general waste and requires no special handling to dispose of it.  It should be no more dangerous that food waste that microbes would want to grow on.  The only exception I can think of would be if it contained antibiotics or anything else that is supposed to be destroyed before disposal -- the packaging should indicate this, and hopefully the thermal or chemical means of neutralization.

 

 

[Shere- Dean]

Hi GM,

 

Good day. Thank you very much for your response. I think your first option may be the better of the two.

I had the opportunity to look at the product instructions for a few petrifilms (in my mind, these would have a similar make up). The instruction for unused petrifilms was - "Follow current industry standards and local regulations for disposal of biohazardous waste".

This should be done to reduce the risks associated with environmental contamination and exposure to biohazards. 

 

 

I did reach out to a few Microbiologists, and they indicated that they autoclaved, then discarded. However, no one was able to provide literature to support their practice. 

[PrplomSolved]

Good day,

 

My company has several expired agar in stock that is not being used. I would like to know the safest way to discard or dispose them. The brands in stock are, Accumedia, Neogen and Difo.

 

Thank you in advance.

Afternoon, 

 

I currently work in a mibo lab and we basically have a rule where we will keep the SDS for 2 years past the point of disposal for reference but once I can ensure that there are no special disposal requirements, we just autoclave everything out. Especially if its been expired for a prolonged period of time. I think this is just one of those unspoken rules *shrug*

 

Some alternative uses would be to keep some generic media for training purposes... also, some local community colleges, high schools, etc. will take expired media just to practice techniques...