Trash and Plant Waste

Greenhouse staff will pick up trash and plant waste (compost) bins weekly to help keep the facilities clean and pest-free. If you fill multiple bins at one time in a shared greenhouse hallway, please take them out to the dock areas and dispose of them yourself to ensure trash and plant waste bins remain available to other greenhouse users.

We ask that you do not overfill the plant waste or trash bins. Fill plant waste bins halfway with heavy soil or sand, use multiple bins if needed. Do not throw away wet or oversaturated soil into the plant waste bins, it will become moldy and difficult to dry down inside the bins. We recommend drying plant material/soil in the greenhouses first before disposing of it in the plant waste bins.

Waste disposal will be delayed if the plant waste or trash bins are too heavy for our greenhouse workers to lift. Staff may also ask that the individual lab scoop out the overfilled bins into multiple bins and then our staff will reschedule pickup for that greenhouse area at a later time.

Greenhouse Trash Disposal 

Please remember to separate the soil and plant materials from other trash (plastic, pots, clay pots, paper, wood, etc.) when disposing of greenhouse projects. 

Grey Trash bins labeled ‘Trash Only’ should be used to dispose of non-plant/soil materials like plastics, paper, wood, metal, etc. 

Greenhouse Plant Waste Disposal

White Plant Waste (Compost) bins labeled ‘Soil or Plant Materials’ should be used to dispose of plant or soil materials that are unregulated. 

Regulated or transgenic materials should always be autoclaved following our greenhouse/DRS policy.  

DO NOT OVERFILL the trash or compost containers; if you cannot lift them, neither can we. Please do not overload the trash or plant waste bins more than halfway with heavy materials.  

If you fill up more than one container at a time when disposing of projects, please empty them as a courtesy for other greenhouse users.  

Transgenic or Regulated Plant Waste

To request transgenic or regulated waste pick up, email your greenhouse manager in advance to let them know you are harvesting or want to dispose of the regulated materials. Prepare the pots by cutting down any aboveground vegetation to the top of the pot, bag vegetative materials in transparent autoclave bags, and finally place the pots and bags in a designated spot within the greenhouse room. Autoclave bags should be filled no more than halfway to the top so we can fold and stack them on shelves within the autoclave. Heavy sand or soil can be double-bagged to prevent spillage.

Where do I find the dumpsters?

There are dumpsters and open metal pans located in all of the greenhouse dock areas for plant waste (compost) and trash disposal. Turner Hall Greenhouses dock is on the south side of the greenhouses near the freight elevator. PSL Greenhouses has two docks on the north and southeast sides.

The dumpsters are for trash materials and the open metal pans are for non-regulated plant waste.