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Your first move in identifying sludge should be to start big. Are there any pieces at the bottom (metals, plastics, insolubles)? Getting rid of the largest pieces first should help with other processes where they may interfere, such as distillation or boiling point. Separate these pieces through filtration, testing them for intrinsic properties or reactions they have (see plastic identification chart)

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A good next step in sludge would be to distill any liquids mixed together, making sure to collect the purest liquid possible when doing so. This is a reliable step and allows one to test the individual properties of the liquids that make up the sludge, this step may even collect some powders to test and identify

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As you test sludge, you should be working down to smaller and smaller pieces of the substances, starting with large chunks and moving down to the level of particles. After distilling out any liquids possible, move to the evaporating dish boiling out the liquids and leaving powders to collect and test, though be sure to use as little liquid as possible. Using a small amount helps to conserve liquid and increase the rate at which it boils.

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your next move is to identify any powders you have hitherto collected, through either distillation, filtration, or evaporation. These are key to identification as some of your most toxic materials could be powders, whether they be already dissolved or insoluble.

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Melting point is an important property to keep track of, marking the shift from a solid to a liquid. This temperature has a wide range across substances, with metals typically having an incredibly high melting point (with the exception of mercury and gallium) and plastics having a wide range of melting points. It's important to note that melting point and freezing point are the same temperature. (i.e ice melts above 0 degrees Celsius, and water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius)

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Here is a simple flow chart used to identify the most common plastics. Follow these tests to easily identify an unknown plastic or group of plastics.

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Volume is the amount of space within an object, or how much space it occupies. The most precise and fastest way to measure the volume of a small object (typically irregularly shaped) is to place it in a graduated cylinder and measure the amount of liquid displaced. Conveniently, milliliters and centimeters cubed are interchangeable units, meaning the amount of 'mL' an object takes up is equivalent to its volume.

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While many use the words 'Mass' and 'Weight' interchangeably, they are quite different. Weight is the amount of gravity acting on a certain object, so weight is not completely definite as it can change between planets or even certain extremes on planet Earth. Mass is the definite amount of matter in an object, unable to change between amounts of acting gravity. In everyday conversations, the difference is minimal, but an important piece of information to remember. Mass is typically measured in grams (abbreviated to g)

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The physical properties of any substance are important to remember, as they determine important factors in any form of separation, such as melting, boiling, dissolving, distilling and many more. Always keep these numbers in mind when trying to identify a substance.

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Solubility is a substance's ability to dissolve in certain solvents (liquids). This can be a tricky property to measure as adding too much of a solute (solid material) can over saturate the solvent and lead to false assumptions that a material is insoluble. Always remember to dissolve small amounts of solute at a time to ensure you don't over saturate the liquid.

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The boiling point of a material is an integral property of any substance, and a key factor in identifying. Boiling point marks the maximum temperature of a substance's liquid phase before becoming a gas. Since this is an intrinsic property, it can be used to identify many liquids, though some liquids share, or have very similar boiling points

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Density is an easy tool to begin with when identifying a new substance. Due to density being an intrinsic property, it can easily be used to identify unknown substances. To measure a substance's density, measure its mass and volume. Volume can be acquired through several means, but mass can be most reliably measured through use of a scale. Dividing mass by volume finds a substance's density.