Copper(II) oxide (CAS 1317-38-0): storage and disposal

Powder and wire form tend to end up in the same tin or tray after a few terms of practicals, which makes them hard to describe. Keep them in separate, closed, labelled containers on a general shelf in a dry store, dated on arrival and away from food grade supplies. Part-used jars issued for reduction experiments should come back to the store rather than stay in the class set. Because the powder is fine and black, it marks the shelf and any neighbouring jar with a dark dust that is easy to confuse with carbon or manganese dioxide. Wipe the outside of the jar and check that the label names the oxide.

As the fully oxidised form of copper, the black solid does not visibly age in the way many salts do. The signs are about handling: powder that has picked up damp and clumped, black dust around the lid, a label that has rubbed off against a dark jar and an unknown date of receipt. Used oxide returned from a reduction practical may be partly changed, with a reddish or coppery tint or a mixture of powder and fragments, and it should be described as used rather than put back with clean stock. A tin of wire that has been mixed with other metal pieces is another common finding.

We arrange this by specialist collection. We do not publish a drain or general waste route for any chemical. It is normally packed in a general laboratory pack with compatible chemicals.

Used oxide is the awkward case. After a reduction practical the returned powder may hold copper metal and other residues, and the collection team needs to know that, so keep used and unused stock in separate containers and label them. Because it is classified as very toxic to aquatic life, black washings from glassware included, it must not go down a sink or drain, into general waste or into a skip, and nobody should try to treat it first. It is normally collected as hazardous waste under 16 05 06* in a lab pack or 16 05 07* outside one, though the producer classifies the waste. Give the form, powder or wire, for each container.

Usually held as: powder, wire form.

Tell us the container size and how many you hold. An estimate is enough to start with, and some items cannot be priced until someone has looked at them.