Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 55.78
Liaison Jennifer McLaughlin
Submission Date Dec. 9, 2019
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

South Dakota State University
OP-21: Hazardous Waste Management

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Jennifer McLaughlin
Sustainability Intern
Facilities and Services
"---" 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:

For laboratory type of hazardous materials, everyone who works with or works around hazardous materials (including radiation) are required to take a class offered by the Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) office.

All employees that work with chemicals are encouraged to only purchase the amount needed for the intended purpose and no more. This helps minimize the amount of material that needs to be disposed of.

The EHS office is always trying to advance the concept that all users of chemical and electronics materials are responsible for the effective management of the materials that are used in the operation of any facility. We do not have a specific program, but it is emphasized during laboratory visits and audits.

The EHS office through its online inventory system is able, at times, to arrange for and exchange of materials between laboratories thus saving money, disposal costs and time for researchers and teaching laboratories.


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

All hazardous and other such wastes are managed by the Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) office. Once the EHS office is notified of the materials (including but not limited to: ballasts, fluorescent bulbs, used paint materials, laboratory chemicals, and used oils), the EHS office, or the General Services of the Facilities and Services Department, pick up the materials and they are inventoried and placed into storage at an on-site storage area where they are categorized by DOT codes. Once the inventorying and such procedures are finished, licensed/certified vendors pick up the materials for disposal. All such materials must be DOT manifested and the EHS office ensures that this is proper. Disposal bids must include the amount recycled and how the materials are disposed and all materials must have a “Certificate of Destruction” sent back to the EHS office for our records and evaluations.

The EHS office collects all unwanted materials, stores and arrange for certified disposal vendors.All unwanted chemical materials are disposed by a certified chemical disposal/recycling companry. EHS operates the collection of such materials, organizes and arranges for the vendor. The university no long uses coal, thus no coal ash in managed. All materials are given to a certifed hazardous material vendor. As part of our conditions, no materials may leave the US and must be recycled if relevant to the waste.


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

N/A


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

Environmental Health & Safety operates an online chemical and biological inventory system. This system is designed to track unwanted materials to individual laboratories and facilities.


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:

Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) manages all electronic waste. All materials are collected and stored in a designated building on campus. Initially the IT department collects the materials to ensure all data is destroy. EHS then arranges for a vendor meeting EHS standards is then hired to recycle the materials. The materials are not allowed be exported and must be recycling in the US or Canada (with our permission). For student e-waste, any electronic materials can be dropped off at the EHS facility which will then be put into the universities electronic recycling program.

Batteries are recycled by a company out of Volga; light bulbs of all kinds are shipped out, depends on vendor where they go, but MUST be recycled; all e-waste are recycled by a certified vendor.

When handling e-waste on campus, proper protection (PPE) is always available and all workers that deal with the materials are trained to use them. In the electronic waste building, machine filters and large amounts of air ventilation is required to be used at all time. It is the Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) office policy, that in addition, no one person may work with the materials for more than 4 hours a day.


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:
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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.