The old science cupboard in a Mearns school

10 November 2026

Every secondary school science department has a back room that pupils never see. In a school serving the Mearns, that might be a prep room between two labs, with a sink, a cupboard of glassware and shelves that have filled up over the years. A technician who has been there a long time knows every bottle. A new one, arriving after a retirement, finds jars with handwritten labels, a tin of something bought for an experiment that was dropped from the course, and a few reagents nobody has opened since the building was last rewired.

Small departments, long memories

In a smaller school, the person responsible for the prep room may also be supporting lessons, ordering materials and looking after equipment. A cupboard can retain chemicals from lessons that are no longer taught. The next technician inherits what is on the shelves along with the keys, and has to work out which labels still tell the whole story. Anyone who has helped clear an old room will recognise the slow business of finding out what belongs there.

The worry is not only clutter. Some chemicals change as they age, lids corrode, and labels fade until nobody can say for certain what is inside. The right response is to leave doubtful items where they are, closed and undisturbed, and write them down.

Special waste, not the school skip

In Scotland, hazardous waste is handled under the special waste rules, and SEPA is the regulator. Laboratory chemicals need to be identified and classified before disposal; special waste must not be put in the general bins or poured away. A movement of special waste requires a special waste consignment note and a receiving site authorised for that waste. The school needs an accurate description of what is leaving. A university or hospital laboratory in Aberdeen works under the same rules, with longer lists and more unusual compounds, but the principle is identical.

Why summer suits a clearance

Distance shapes the plan. A school away from the main roads has to think about access and the hours when the grounds are busy. In winter, fading light and poor road conditions can complicate any booked visit, especially farther inland. Summer holidays or an in-service day may leave the building quieter, with fewer cars at the gates. That makes the work easier to plan without turning the school timetable upside down.

Help with the planning is available. Lab Chemical Disposal arranges laboratory chemical collection and disposal for schools, colleges, universities and hospitals, and offers a Chemical Register so a department can record what it holds, where it is stored and when it expires.

That register is perhaps the real lesson. A technician who leaves behind a current list, with each bottle, its shelf and its condition, saves the next person a great deal of guesswork, and makes the next clear-out a matter of ticking items off.