Agarose Gel Disposal - (Apr/14/2011 )
Hi all,
Just wanted to know what methods you use for disposal of agarose gels?
I am aware most institutions have boxes/ buckets etc, to collect them. What I am not sure about is how are they disposed off after that?
Are they autoclaved, incinerated or do they go to the landfill?
Thanks!!!
My institution: collect and incinerate. Haha...
Adrian,
I thought your PI's Policy was to reuse gels till they disappear.... 
But thanks.... you are the first poster....
I gift you the number '600' next to your posts!!!
Haha... almost... I did reuse it quite often....
now perhaps 601?
Ameya, I just found that people had published recently something I was about to send off... I can;t help but crying the whole afternoon.
90% identical work with mine.... same focus, same sample, same approach, just different genes.
Novel Pan-Genomic Analysis Approach in Target Selection for Multiplex PCR Identification and Detection of Burkholderia pseudomallei, Burkholderia thailandensis, and Burkholderia cepacia Complex Species: a Proof-of-Concept Study
http://jcm.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/49/3/814
in our lab we do virological studies.so agarose first autoclaved and then they are insinerated
We do genomic studies, and stain with EB. These get collected and shipped to EHS. When I was in a different lab, we set the EB-stained gels in the south window for a day then discarded in the trash. The SYBR safe gels just went into the trash.
lab rat on Sat Apr 16 02:07:34 2011 said:
When I was in a different lab, we set the EB-stained gels in the south window for a day then discarded in the trash.
Could you elaborate on the 'south window' please lab rat ?
gt_ameya on Sat Apr 16 05:17:41 2011 said:
lab rat on Sat Apr 16 02:07:34 2011 said:
When I was in a different lab, we set the EB-stained gels in the south window for a day then discarded in the trash.
Could you elaborate on the 'south window' please lab rat ?
I think that she means that the sun will break down the EB.
(I dont really know the details about this, but I know some people do this.. )
However: putting in the sun for only one day seems not enough according to what I have heard about it.. (however, I dont know how much sun they have..
) Yep, I meant in the sunlight, since EB breaks down under UV. I was also told by an older tech that you could throw away only so much per day in the regular trash. Sometimes our gels would sit for a few days before discarding.
To answer Pito's comment, we're on a higher latitude, so we have summer sunlight from 5:30 am to 9 pm. Winter, we have sunlight at noon...sometimes. 
lab rat on Sat Apr 16 16:33:35 2011 said:
Yep, I meant in the sunlight, since EB breaks down under UV. I was also told by an older tech that you could throw away only so much per day in the regular trash. Sometimes our gels would sit for a few days before discarding.
To answer Pito's comment, we're on a higher latitude, so we have summer sunlight from 5:30 am to 9 pm. Winter, we have sunlight at noon...sometimes.
Do you have some more information (paper?) on the details about the break down of EB under sunlight or uvlight?