Cyclohexanol (CAS 108-93-0): storage and disposal

On a school prep room shelf it usually sits among the organic reagents, in a dry, labelled and orderly store. A cool room can turn the whole bottle into a waxy solid, which is normal for cyclohexanol because it solidifies near room temperature. Never warm a solid bottle to get it flowing, since older stock may hold peroxides. It also takes up moisture from the air, so caps need to stay tight. Oxidisers such as the dichromate used in alcohol practicals belong in their own space, as they attack secondary alcohols. Mark the arrival and opening dates on the label, and review an opened bottle at 12 months. Harmful vapour and airway irritation are good reasons to avoid leaving a poorly capped bottle in a small prep room.

What many technicians see first is a bottle gone solid or slushy, and on its own that says only that the store is cool. A pale, waxy mass or a mix of crystals and liquid can both be normal. That normal behaviour makes old stock harder to read, because crystals around the cap or thread could be the substance itself or something more concerning, and nobody can tell by eye. Peroxides give few visual signs of their own. A colour or smell change, a failed seal, a faded label or a missing receipt date all count against the bottle. If it is old, undated or shows any warning sign, do not move it, do not open it, and get a specialist assessment. Peroxide testing is for competent staff only.

This can form peroxides as it ages, especially after opening. Age and the opened date matter more than appearance, so a container with no opened date should be treated as old.

Review after 12 months: Review interval after opening from the cited peroxide former lists, not an expiry date from a manufacturer. Class C and all other chemicals are left null.

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 We do not publish a drain or general waste route for any chemical.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.

It leaves the site by specialist collection and by no other route. Sitting outside the flammables cabinet does not make it ordinary waste: harmful and irritant properties class it as hazardous, so it never goes into a sink, a drain, a general waste bin or a skip, and nobody should try to treat it first. On the list, say whether each bottle is liquid or solid, because a solid plug affects how the bottle is judged and packed. Note the opening date where one exists, and flag undated bottles. Practical residues are a different item from neat stock, so describe them separately. The usual code is 16 05 06*, or 16 05 08* for a discarded organic chemical outside a lab pack. Consignment paperwork follows the waste, with a Scottish special waste version.

Usually held as: neat.

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.