Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 56.72
Liaison Christie-Joy Hartman
Submission Date May 12, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

James Madison University
OP-21: Hazardous Waste Management

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Jason Rexrode
Resource Recovery Supervisor
Facilities Management
"---" 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:

JMU continuously monitors hazardous waste streams to look for opportunities to reduce waste. Examples from past steps taken include tweaking particular experiment in a high-volume waste chemistry lab so that less waste is generated or that the waste is no longer hazardous. Another mechanism used in the past is the building of partnerships with our hazardous waste contractors to determine if a particular waste can go to fuel blending or recycling instead of disposal.


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

Waste is accumulated in designated “hazardous waste accumulation” areas where it is labeled “hazardous waste,” dated with a container number, and placed on an inventory.  These accumulation areas are inspected weekly to ensure that all labeling is present and that containers are intact and not leaking. Inventories are then provided to the hazardous waste contractor approximately 30 days before the scheduled pick-up to give the contractor time to determine appropriate destinations for all the waste streams and to get disposal-site approvals. When the contractor comes to campus to take the hazardous waste, a staff member escorts the contractor to all the accumulation areas where the waste is packaged according to regulatory requirements and loaded on the truck. All manifest and package list paperwork is generated and signed. and the truck removes the waste. After 30 days, a staff member ensures that all final signed manifests have been received.


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

No significant hazardous material releases have occurred within the past three years. Each year, though, the JMU HazMat team will respond to a handful of incidents involving fluid leaks from vehicles but none have required outside support beyond JMU's HazMat team. If a release occurs beyond an incidental spill, the JMU police department would call the Harrisonburg Fire Department to have their HazMat team respond.


A brief description of any inventory system employed by the institution to facilitate the reuse or redistribution of laboratory chemicals:

JMU uses Vertere Chemical Management System in the academic buildings. When chemicals arrive to campus, all are barcoded and entered into Vertere. The buildings periodically undergo a physical inventory where all the barcoded chemicals are scanned and reconciled with what the electronic inventory in Vertere indicates are present. With this system, users are able to search for a chemical's location only under their department's control to preserve security and due to fact JMU is not equipped to transport chemicals over the road. In some instances when requested, however, certain staff can search the entire inventory system and are able to walk a chemical to a nearby building to be used, if it is feasible to transport by foot and sufficient containment equipment is available.


Does the institution have or participate in a program to responsibly recycle, reuse, and/or refurbish 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), including information about how electronic waste generated by the institution and/or students is recycled:

For institutional property, JMU has a Surplus Property program that first offers working electronic equipment to other departments on campus. If equipment is not able to be reused internally, Surplus Property Staff will offer the equipment to other state agencies free of charge. Remaining equipment is then offered for sale to localities and approved non-profits before it is offered for sale to the general public online through govdeals.com or through public sales held every year or two. Computer surplus equipment can also be donated to local schools, when requested. Lastly, if the equipment is non-functional or does not sell, items will then be recycled through recyclers certified under e-Stewards and/or R2 standards.

For electronic waste generated by students, the Office of Residence Life has two programs in place to reuse/recycle e-waste: 1) "Why Wait? Donate!" is a program during move-out where electronics are collected and donated to charities with reuse in mind. 2) E-Waste bins are placed in every residence hall to collect small electronic waste. For larger items, signage and brochures provide contact information on how to have the Recycling Department collect and recycle these items, all of which will be recycled by a recycler certified under e-Stewards and/or R2 standards.


Is the institution’s electronic waste recycler certified under the e-Stewards and/or Responsible Recycling (R2) standards?:
Yes

Electronic waste recycled or otherwise diverted from the landfill or incinerator during the most recent year for which data is available during the previous three years:
30 Tons

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.