Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 76.93
Liaison Ezra Small
Submission Date March 6, 2020

STARS v2.2

University of Massachusetts Amherst
OP-20: Hazardous Waste Management

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Ezra Small
Sustainability Manager
Physical Plant
"---" 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:
The Chemical inventory system called CEMS (chemical environmental management system) is a reuse and exchange program to reduce the amount of hazardous, universal, and non-regulated chemical waste.

A universal waste-bulb crusher is used in the Waste Recovery Transfer Station, which extracts the mercury out of fluorescent bulbs.

A brief description of how the institution safely disposes of hazardous, universal, and non-regulated chemical waste:
The university complies with established regulations from the Mass Department Environmental Protection, MDEP (310cmr30), as well as regulations from the EPA (40cfr260, 40cfr262, 40cfr273)

The university has on site hazardous waste contractor (TSDF) who picks up and will either bulk or lab pack laboratory chemicals

A brief description of any significant hazardous material release incidents during the previous three years, including volume, impact and response/remediation:
See "Additional documentation to support the submission" below.

A brief description of any inventory system employed by the institution to facilitate the reuse or redistribution of laboratory chemicals:
CEMS a web based program is used to barcode and inventory chemicals for reuse and exchange.

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:
Students can recycle their e-waste at multiple locations easily accessible across campus including in the Library lobby at the "UMass Green Monstah E-Waste Collection Bin" which is offered to the campus community and managed by the Physical Plant Sustainability office. The UMass Minute Rider or Waste Reduction Fellows (student interns) in that office pick up the E-waste on the Minute Rider Bicycle. E-waste is then sorted and brought to the UMass Waste Transfer Recycling Station.
More info on the Green Monstah here: https://www.umass.edu/sustainability/waste-recycling/electronic-waste-recycling.

Students living in the Residence Halls can bring their e-waste to the Service Desks located throughout Residential Life.

Faculty and staff can contact the Office of Waste Management by phone or email to have electronic waste picked up and disposed of. Some collection points are present in offices throughout campus to collect smaller types of electronic waste.

UMass Makerspace Lab is now partnered with AFIT (Admin and Finance IT) to recover some unwanted computers that have been safely scrubbed prior to donation to the Makerspace for student rebuild and parts.

UMass Physical Plant Sustainability office is now partnered with TerraCycle to collect alkaline batteries. Staff within the Facilities & Campus Services can bring their batteries to the box located in the Physical Plant office.

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:
http://www.ehs.umass.edu/

Additional documentation to support the submission:
Stars_Report_3_yr_Releases_March_2017_to_March_2020.xlsx

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.