Ir recycling step 2

The next step is to strip all of the volatile materials from the waste, employing a Rotovap. This is merely a contraption which heats the solvent in one pot while cooling the vapors so that they drip into another pot (the solvent trap.) This step happened mostly without incident, save but one batch of waste which was not properly neutralized. Of course, if you take dilute acid and strip the solvents off, what you end up with is concentrated acid. This hazard is inherent, since most of the volatiles are benign, anything which is particularly nasty is going to be concentrated and become nastier. As my labmate says, usually to make himself feel better while pouring waste down the drain with the water on, "The solution to pollution is dilution!" I have discovered the opposite is also true "If you want to make nasty waste even worse, concentrate it!" Its not as catchy, but equally relevant to the task at hand.

This nastiness will all be remedied in the next step.