Joliet Junior College
OP-25: Hazardous Waste Management

1) Reduction begins in the ordering process. Although there is no “central ordering officer” for chemical purchasing, most of the Departments have a limited number of people who have the authority to order chemicals or hazardous materials. 2) Departments are also instructed at the Safety Meetings to use the entire quantities of substances they purchase and not order more until needed.

Every six months as required by EPA the hazardous, universal, and non-regulated chemicals and biomedical wastes are picked up and transported to a TSD facility by R3 Environmental Service according to EPA Standards. Manifests/documents are kept in the EHS Manager's office. All of the above are safely stored in L-1040, the Hazardous Waste Storage room, in required storage cabinets.

The most recent spill was an approximately 30 gallon antifreeze spill that occurred from a broken pipe in the air-conditioning system in the U-Building. Maintenance was notified and handled the spill. The impact was some inconvenience to students and staff in the area, along with floor/tile/carpet damage. There was also an automobile accident at the Weitendorf Facility involving a potential oil spill into the nearby pond. It was contained by the local fire department and cleaned up by the JJC Grounds Department.

Laboratory chemicals are only purchased as needed and used with minimal waste. Chemicals are not reused and the waste is sent to the Hazardous Waste Storage L-1040.

With the passage of Public Act 97-0287 - Electronic Products Recycling & Reuse Act and effective January 1, 2012, computers (laptop, notebook, netbook, tablet, desktop), monitors, printers, fax machines, VCR, DVD players, scanners, electronic mice, keyboards, and small scale servers are banned from landfills and need to be recycled. We consider items e-waste when they are unrepairable or so obsolete as to have no auction value. We just take care of school generated e-waste. We do not collect e-waste from students, staff or faculty.

Main Campus: Any e-waste from main campus can be sent to Zone 2 workroom for consolidation. This includes any broken or unusable electronics. Once a week (more if needed) we will have the student worker check in with the zones and move any e-waste back to Zone 2. Any auction equipment from main campus can be sent to the Zone 2 workroom and we will process and store it from there. Once a week (more if needed) we will have the student worker check in with the zones and move any auction items back to Zone 2 workroom. If there is a large amount, like a lab replacement, we arrange to have it moved directly to storage in facilities. Equipment is DBAN'd and tagged. Remote Campuses: E-waste from remote campuses is sent directly to receiving where they have containers for it. A running tally of the e-waste is kept in receiving. Auction equipment is evaluated on a case by case basis. Large amounts, like a lab replacement, go directly to storage. Small amounts are sent to Zone 2 workroom for consolidation into larger auction lots. E-Waste Batteries: Any type of battery (i.e. UPS/battery back-up, laptop batteries) are treated as hazardous waste and sent to Hazardous Waste storage. Main Campus sends them to the J-building workroom for consolidation. Remote Campuses send them directly to Hazardous Waste storage in facilities. They are listed on their own work order. Plastic CD Cases: These are considered e-waste and not recyclable through facilities. Our e-waste removal company takes these items. Non Functioning Hard Drives: Damaged, non-functioning, unDBANable hard drives are sent to Zone 2 workroom for destruction. There is a box next to the DBAN station marked for destruction. These need to be physically destroyed before they are added to e-waste to ensure that we are not exposing confidential data that might still be on these non-functioning hard drives.