Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 50.74
Liaison Catherine Lockhart
Submission Date Sept. 23, 2019

STARS v2.2

Lawrence University
OP-20: Hazardous Waste Management

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Kelsey McCormick
Sustainability Coordinator
President's Office
"---" 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:

All departments are contacted annually by The Custodial Services Supervisor requesting a list of items for disposal. The list is sent to WRR Environmental Services and all items are packaged to be picked up. Yearly disposal typically occurs in December.


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

Chemistry and Biology:
Waste disposal is managed by the Laboratory Supervisor.
Guidelines related to disposal:
1. Separation/segregation of different used chemicals and byproducts
2. Simple neutralizations and drain disposal as allowed
3. Volume minimization via evaporation or filtration as appropriate
4. Reuse of spent reagents for demonstrations (KNO3 in smoke plume emitters as an example)

Lawrence does not order Perchloric Acid due to the fact that there is no wash-down hood or special ventilation for usage.

Members of the geology, physics, art and psychology departments will occasionally contact the Laboratory Supervisor for disposal of hazardous or chemical waste.

Psychology:
Proper disposal of carcasses of rodents used in psychology research is managed by the psychology department.

Light bulbs:
Lawrence recycled all fluorescent, LED, HID and Incandescent bulbs with Lamp Recyclers Inc.

Biohazards:
Biohazard Waste Material is also picked up by Lamp Recyclers Inc.


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

None


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

The chemistry and biology departments currently use Vertere for the inventory of chemicals/reagents. Departments can easily search one anothers inventories on Vertere to see if an odd or small amount of reagent is already on campus. Departments make an effort to share ordering and quotation discounts to save money which also helps prevent excess ordering. Physics, Anthropology, Art and Geology all use chemicals of various sorts in their departments but do not use the Vertere inventory system However, they do reach out to Pf. Martin regarding the disposal of these chemicals.


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:

Institution: Lawrence recycles its used electronic waste with ITAD Logic, an IT asset disposition and data destruction company. ITAD Logic is R2, ISO 14001 and IGSAS 18001 Certified. Lawrence drops off used electronics, or ITAD will come to pick them up, each summer.

Students: Lawrence uses the Big Green Box program to collect batteries and small electronics as a service to students, staff and faculty. The Big Green Box can accept alkaline, nickel-cadmium, nickel metal-hydride, lithium ion, lithium metal and other household batteries. The Big Green Box can also accept cell phones, MP3 players, tablets, handheld power tools, and miniature laptops or computers.


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

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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