For most of us, recycling is a matter of sorting plastics and paper, then making them available for pickup. As you’d expect, it’s not quite as simple at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) with its 700 labs and 1,000 lab rooms.

Since early 2002, the Environmental Health & Safety Department at CUMC has been working hard to find ways to reduce waste and recycle, says Kathleen Collins, Director of Laboratory Safety. More than 70 percent of the space used by CUMC is regulated. And $2 million has been invested recently to make sure that it all meets U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. As a result of a voluntary, three-phase self-audit offered by the EPA to Northeast biomedical institutions, four million square feet of CUMC space are in top environmental condition.

Two of the recycling targets focused on lab solvents xylene and alcohol, which used to account for nearly 25 percent of the waste generated each year. The surgical pathology and dermatopathology labs are the two largest consumers of these solvents for their tissue-processing and staining procedures.

So the two laboratories under the guidance of Environmental Health & Safety were the first to pilot recycling technologies for xylene and alcohol. This with the installation of chemical recycling machines in the two labs. The recycling equipment purifies the used solvents by filtering out contaminants.

Recycling these chemicals will significantly reduce both purchase and disposal costs, says Dr. Robert Lewy, senior associate dean for faculty affairs and regulatory compliance for Health Sciences. In addition to the cost savings, these efforts are promoting a greener environment by preventing pollution.

Silver recovery from x-ray film developing also has begun. Recovery systems were installed to prevent silver from literally going down the drain in more than 30 labs that process film. This allows proper disposal of the scrap film, rather than mixing it with other waste that goes to a landfill. Collins describes another program in which all departments were asked whether their mercury thermometers could be replaced with alcohol ones. Most said fine, Collins says. And where the change was infeasible, the departments received mercury spill kits.

Lead from computer monitors, mercury from fluorescent lights, and batteries also are recycled. "Older computer monitors each have about 5 pounds of lead so we estimate we saved over 5,000 pounds of lead from going into landfills," Lewy says.

Ensuring that these standards are maintained daily falls to lab workers and a dedicated team of 200 maintenance staff, including members of the Transportation Workers Union. They undergo training twice a year by Environmental Health & Safety. According to Crowley, and the EPA, which approved the self-audit with flying colors last year, Columbia’s Medical Center is in good hands.