Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 68.76
Liaison Josh Lasky
Submission Date Feb. 27, 2015
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

George Washington University
OP-25: Hazardous Waste Management

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Ronda Chapman-Duer
Sustainability Project Facilitator
Division of Operations
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have strategies in place to safely dispose of all hazardous, special (e.g. coal ash), universal, and non-regulated chemical waste and seek to minimize the presence of these materials on campus?:
Yes

A brief description of steps taken to reduce hazardous, special (e.g. coal ash), universal, and non-regulated chemical waste:

GW has policies and programs in place to minimize the production of hazardous waste, and disposes of all hazardous, universal, and non-regulated chemical waste in a responsible manner with a preference towards recycling or re-purposing of all materials. Hazardous chemical waste is sorted and shipped to a licensed disposal facility where waste with the ability to be recycled is re-purposed or reused. All other hazardous waste is incinerated. Other waste is recycled: waste oil, batteries, and CFL light bulbs. Waste minimization programs include efforts to retrofit fixtures to accept more environmentally-conscious light bulbs, and the elimination of oil-based paint where possible.


A brief description of how the institution safely disposes of hazardous, universal, and non-regulated chemical waste:

GW uses licensed contractors, haulers, and receiving facilities to ensure compliance with all applicable DC and Federal regulations. Our insurance provider requires disposal standards that exceed Federal regulations and prohibit off-shore disposal of hazardous waste.


A brief description of any significant hazardous material release incidents during the previous three years, including volume, impact and response/remediation:

"GW has not had ANY significant hazardous material release in the last three years.
All minor spills are promptly cleaned up by staff or contractors and are properly disposed of using licensed contractors and registered disposal facilities."


A brief description of any inventory system employed by the institution to facilitate the reuse or redistribution of laboratory chemicals:
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Does the institution have or participate in a program to responsibly recycle, reuse, and/or refurbish all electronic waste generated by the institution?:
Yes

Does the institution have or participate in a program to responsibly recycle, reuse, and/or refurbish electronic waste generated by students?:
Yes

A brief description of the electronic waste recycling program(s):

GW community members can submit a FixIt ticket to request removal of GW owned electronics such as printers (with paper removed), PC's, CRT monitors, laptop computers, hard drives, networking equipment, telephones and other office e-waste from Foggy Bottom, Mount Vernon, and VSTC locations. The DivOps Transportation Services team will pick up these items and deliver them to the Sea-Crate behind the Support Building.


A brief description of steps taken to ensure that e-waste is recycled responsibly, workers’ basic safety is protected, and environmental standards are met:

eAsset Solutions is committed to environmentally friendly recycling and workplace safety; our practices go above and beyond state and federal regulations adhering to a much more rigorous standard developed by R2 Solutions. Please see the attached PDF, "Why choose an R2 recycler". Every certified R2 recycler has been rigorously audited by an independent third party auditor that evaluates each recycler in more than 50 areas of operational and environmental performance. These areas include, but are not limited to, ensuring that e-waste is recycled responsibly, workers safety is protected, and environmental standards are met. Regarding e-waste recycling and environmental standards - all of eAsset Solutions downstream partners (where our processed material goes for further refinement) have been audited and also must comply and be certified with either R2 or e-Stewards. In addition, eAsset Solutions and all of its vendor partners must also comply with an approved Environmental Management System such as ISO 14001 and/or The Recycling Industry Operating Standard (RIOS). eAsset Solutions is ISO 14001 Certified.


The website URL where information about the institution’s hazardous and electronic-waste recycling programs is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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