Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 55.85
Liaison Robert St.Onge
Submission Date July 11, 2014
Executive Letter Download

STARS v1.1

Okanagan College
OP-21: Hazardous Waste Management

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Kevin Fukushima
Health and Safety Lead
Safety, Security & Emergency 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:

To reduce costs and potential risk of hazardous products, efforts are underway to assess the use of various chemicals in experiments (reduce concentrations, volumes). For example, we now use order specimens for of biological dissection freeze dried as opposed to using formaldehyde and other toxic preservatives.
Chemical inventories are being tightly managed and the old adage of ‘economy of scale’ is no longer the norm. Purchase of minimum volumes to reduce storage and waste is now the goal.


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

The removal of hazardous waste from each Campus requires a detailed description of the waste material products. A form is required for the waste producing area to complete that identifies the chem waste volume, content and safety procedures in case of spill or exposure.
The College contracts at the end of each semester with a certified removal company to meet WHMIS and TDG labeling requirements when picking up our waste for disposal.
Broken glass from laboratories is now being autoclaved prior to disposal to ensure that the cleaned glass can be included with regular recycle glass versus haz waste, as previously disposed.
Selecting products for their eco or recycle options. Waste spray paint is separated into water and solids. The solids are picked up at no cost by the paint supplier.
Enclosing volatile storage into a single, secure location (oxy-acetylene) to reduce portable compressed gas canisters and multiple locations. Gas is feed on an on-demand line system.
Recycle used oil and filters – a new recycle ‘depot’ is planned for our new trades expansion to highlight and encourage participation not only from classroom waste, but from staff as well.


The website URL where information about hazardous materials management is available:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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