Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 69.35
Liaison Delicia Nahman
Submission Date Sept. 12, 2023

STARS v2.2

Lafayette College
OP-20: Hazardous Waste Management

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Chrissy Oliver
environmental, health and safety specialist
Environmental, Health & Safety
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1. Hazardous waste minimization and disposal

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:
If in experiments using chemicals, the experiment can be scaled down while maintaining the same results, many professors will scale down the experiment to reduce chemical use.

In addition, Lafayette allows departments to share their excess chemicals (e.g., if the chemistry department orders a particular chemical and another department is in need of a small quantity of that chemical, they can request to share the product instead of ordering their own.)

A brief description of how the institution safely disposes of hazardous, universal, and non-regulated chemical waste:
Hazardous and non-hazardous chemical waste is consolidated and removed from campus twice per calendar year. Lafayette staff tags all hazardous and non-hazardous chemical waste with a label detailing the chemical make up and quantity and then a third party vendor, Veolia Environmental Services, packs the waste for off-site disposal.

Universal waste, such as light bulbs, are collected by Facilities Ops staff and packaged for off-site recycling through Clean Earth Environmental Solutions.

A brief description of any significant hazardous material release incidents during the previous three years, including volume, impact and response/remediation:
None have occurred in the last three years.

A brief description of any inventory system employed by the institution to facilitate the reuse or redistribution of laboratory chemicals:
All academic departments using chemicals have an inventory system which has been digitized to allow information to be shared. Researchers are encouraged to collaborate within their department and across departments with regard to using surplus chemicals before ordering new containers.

Part 2. Electronic waste diversion

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

If yes to either of the above, provide:

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 electronic waste generated by the college itself, the Information Technology Services (ITS) team collects office electronics waste, determines if it should be reused, donated to an outside institution, or recycled. If a device is to be reused, ITS shall take necessary steps to wipe the device and otherwise refurbish it.

EHS provides support to departments when looking to dispose of other types of electronics equipment, such as lab equipment, field equipment and other non-office items.

For student generated waste, collection bins for small electronics are staged strategically in residence halls and the student center. Additionally, electronics is specifically segregated during the Green Move Out program.

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

Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the institution’s hazardous waste program is available:
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.