Have you conveyed the importance of accurate hazardous waste labels to all employees working in your labs? Waste labels should be used to create waste stream information profiles, which are used to generate hazardous waste manifests when waste is removed for off-site disposal. Those hazardous waste manifests are then used to instruct the treatment facility on how to ultimately treat and dispose of the hazardous waste.
When constituents of a waste stream change, the waste label needs to be updated to accurately convey the contents of the container. If the changes are significant enough to initiate changes to the waste profile and manifests, this could impact how the waste should be handled for treatment. So it is not only a label conveying hazards to personnel in the lab, labels are the starting point for how waste will be ultimately disposed of! Waste may be collected as non-regulated waste initially, and change over time to regulated waste, or vice versa.
Ensure all lab employees are well aware of the importance of accurate labels through training and frequent reminders.