Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 71.76
Liaison Mike Versteege
Submission Date Oct. 10, 2014
Executive Letter Download

STARS v1.2

University of Alberta
OP-21: Hazardous Waste Management

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Lois Dvorsky
Environment Manager
Environment, Health and Safety
"---" 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:

HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
The University of Alberta has a centrally funded program to manage hazardous materials for recycling or disposal. Laboratories are encouraged to reduce the amount of chemicals they store by doing chemical audits and using targeted chemical disposal programs. Additionally, annual laboratory audits are conducted by the Chemical Hygiene group that encourages labs to maintain only a minimal chemical inventory.

BULK PURCHASING
University departments using chemicals typically have central stores that manage many of the chemicals common to labs in the department. This allows for bulk purchasing, which reduces duplicate purchases and individual lab storage volumes.

CHEMICAL REUSE
The university has a Recycle Chemical Program that encourages labs to reduce their inventory by relinquishing surplus chemicals that are then made available to other labs on campus. The surplus chemical inventory is a searchable electronic database available to all labs registered in the database.


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

The University of Alberta has operated a centrally funded program to manage hazardous waste both on main campus and at our satellite campuses for almost 40 years. The Hazardous Waste Program manages both hazardous and non-regulated waste, including chemical, radionuclide, bio-hazardous waste and some hazardous recyclables such as paint and mercury.

The program operates with one technician and a supervisor. Both the tech and supervisor are trained in bio, chemical and radiation safety, defensive driving and Transportation of Dangerous Goods. The Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) website provides information on management of hazardous waste, and EHS administers an electronic waste tracking program that maintains records of receipt and disposal of hazardous materials.

The hazardous, non-regulated and select universal waste for disposal are collected on campus and transported under Transportation of Dangerous Goods Regulations to the hazardous waste transfer facility. At the facility the waste is sorted and packed for transfer to a licensed hazardous waste disposal vendor. Solvents are bulked into two 10,000 litre tanks from which the contents are sent out with a licensed hazardous waste disposal vendor to be used as recycled fuel.


The website URL where information about hazardous materials management is available:
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.