At some universities, Chemical Surplus Programs provide an official channel to leave and take chemicals stocks. If your lab has a chemical that you aren’t going to use up, you donate it and save space. If your lab needs a chemical, you can check the surplus program before purchasing it and save some money.
Below is our Work In Progress attempt at listing what universities have official channels for such a program. If you know of a university we haven’t listed, or you know one of these programs is actually no longer running, email us! If your research environment doesn’t have such a program, consider letting the Powers That Be at your work know that researchers might benefit from such a program.
NIH used to have a “Free Stuff” website that promoted chemical exchanges in a larger research network, but the project seems to be recently defunct.
Iowa State University has a Chemical Redistribution program run by EH&S
Ohio State University has a chemical redistribution program run by EH&S
Rutgers has a Chemical Reuse and Redistribution Program run by IP&O
Stanford has a surplus chemicals program run by EH&S.
Temple has a chemical redistribution program run by EH&S
University of Central Florida has the ReChem program, run by EH&S
University of Hawaii has the UH Swap Meet, which EH&S encourages for requesting and supplying chemicals as well as other materials.
University of Kansas has a Chemical Redistribution Request system run by EH&S
University of Massachusetts Amherst has a Chemical Reuse and Exchange Program run by EH&S
University of Michigan has the ChEM Reuse Program, run by EH&S
University of Missouri, has a chemical redistribution program run by EH&S
University of Pittsburgh has a Chemical Redistribution Program run by EH&S
University of Washington, run by EH&S.
University of Wisconsin-Madison has a chemical redistribution program run by EH&S
UCLA has a Chemical Redistribution Program, though the last time the inventory was updated was the start of 2018.
UCSB has the LabRATS program, complete with pictures and descriptions relevant for labs interested in getting free chemicals. You can also email into request particular chemicals.