This document analyzes biohazardous waste disposal practices at three biotechnology companies. Researchers weighed waste containers daily over two months to determine excess weight not considered biohazardous. They found 17.5-39.4% of waste was excess, costing $284.85-1491.40 extra per year. Improving practices like increased signage and segregated bins could help lower costs by reducing unnecessary waste disposal. Difficulties included privacy concerns and limited lab space. Future work may develop plans to further reduce hazardous waste and costs through additional training and demonstrating monetary savings.

1. Introduction
Methods
RESULTS
REFERENCES
Acknowledgements
DISCUSSION
.
Analysis of Biohazardous Waste Disposal in the
Biotechnology Research Setting
Marc Lopez; Karl Kasai, David Burcin, Robert Chavez, Eugene Hotta, Martin Skipper, Bryce Miller
Future Work
The biotechnology industry is a major driver of the
economy in the San Diego region. Currently, the industry
is responsible for 38.1 billion dollars (1). With over 80
independent and university-related research institutes,
including both San Diego State and the University of
California, San Diego, the region of San Diego provides
companies with the necessary workforce needed to
support the growing bio-tech industry. As the industry
continues to grow, the amount of waste produced (both
hazardous and biohazardous) continues to become an
increasing concern. Waste output is important for start-up
and established companies for legal and financial reasons.
Financially, companies pay to have their hazardous and
biohazardous waste treated and disposed of. If excess or
unnecessary waste is entering these containers, it
increases the cost for waste disposal. This project aims to
show the amount of waste that was disposed of
improperly; it also shows how much more are companies
potentially paying for it.
• Establish what is considered “biohazardous waste” in
a research setting
• Create a standard for weighing unnecessary waste
• Examine each biohazardous waste container daily to
record excess weights (sharps and pathological waste
not included)
• Collect data over a two month period
• Analyze the actual total weights gathered for the 2015
calendar year
• Compare data of excess weight collected of the
amount of excess waste with actual waste to
determine the percentage of waste that could be have
been averted
• Show a monetary amount of money that could be
saved by practicing smarter disposal habits
Total Waste Output
Figure 2: Three pie charts display the percentage of excess
weight vs the actual weight
Figure 3: Shows the amount of potential savings vs actual amount
spent
Company A Company B Company C
Total Weight/Year (lbs) 1,630.0 12,360.0 3,776.6
Percent of Excess
Weight (lbs) 17.4757282 14.4898843 39.4904459
Yearl Estimated Excess
Weight (lbs) 284.8543689 1,790.9497 1,491.396178
Figure 1: A table showing the actual weight collected for the
2015 year & the estimated savings using the data collected
Percentage of Excess Weight
Costs & Savings
• Difficulty in obtaining data for safety concerns. The
data collected was based off of an estimated weight.
• Majority of the excess waste was produced in the
tissue culture labs for each of the companies.
Company C had little biohazardous waste outside of
the tissue culture labs which correlates to them
having the highest percentage of excess waste
• Difficult for companies to lower the amount of waste
due privacy concerns. Many companies want
everything incinerated so there is no trace back to
them.
• By treating everything as biohazardous waste, it
ensures that no biohazardous waste is disposed of
illegally.
• Lab space is often limited. A majority of the areas
only have space a biohazardous waste bin making it
difficult to separate waste that may not be
biohazardous.
• Develop a plan to help lower the amount spent on
disposal of hazardous waste
• Possible steps include:
• Showing the monetary amount that can be saved so
employers are more inclined to improve their waste
disposal program
• Increase signage to serve as a reminder of correct
waste disposal
• More variety of waste bins in lab areas to ensure of
more segregated disposal
• Increase the frequency of training programs
Thank you to the Kasai Consulting for giving me the necessary
support and guidance to help complete this project.
1. Medical Waste Management Act. (2016, January). Retrieved May
1, 2016, from
http://www.cdph.ca.gov/certlic/medicalwaste/Documents/MedicalWa
ste/2013/MWMAfinalJan2016.
2. San Diego's Life Sciences Industry. (n.d.). Retrieved May 1, 2016,
from http://www.sandiegobusiness.org/industry/lifescience
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𝐴𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑙𝑦 𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙
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$1.50
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= 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦 𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑛 𝐸𝑥𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑊𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒
Methods used to determine percentage of excess weight and potential
savings