Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 66.97
Liaison Teddy Lhoutellier
Submission Date March 13, 2019
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Miami
OP-21: Hazardous Waste Management

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Teddy Lhoutellier
Sustainability Manager
Environmental Health and Safety
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1 

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:
We encourage reuse of hazardous chemicals that are still in good condition in our labs.

A brief description of how the institution safely disposes of hazardous, universal, and non-regulated chemical waste:
We have a federally licensed waste hauler that packages and disposes of our chemical and universal waste.

A brief description of any significant hazardous material release incidents during the previous three years, including volume, impact and response/remediation:
None in the past 3 years.

A brief description of any inventory system employed by the institution to facilitate the reuse or redistribution of laboratory chemicals:
Once Principal Investigators leave the university, their department encourages other PI to take any chemicals that they may need from their inventory.

Part 2 

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:
UM property items: The Medial Disposal Service is a process by which data is irreversibly removed from media devices such as hard drives, thumb drives, mobile phones, etc. The method used is to shred devices in order to minimize risk of security breaches and reduce the loss of intellectual information, PHI, research data, or other confidential information stored on the device. A third-party vendor performs the shredding activity onsite under the supervision of UMIT personnel. The shredded materials are then taken offsite and recycled responsibly using an R2 and e-Stewards certified partner. The third party vendor that the University contracts with is ShredQuick. They are AAA Certified by the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID). One of the requirements to being AAA Certified is to use R2 and e-Steward certified recyclers. In this case, ShredQuick uses Sims Recycling Solutions which is R2 and e-Steward certified. Personal items: The U Tech Source will take any student old Apple technology. Students may simply bring in their device or visit the shopUofMiami.com site to receive a trade-in quote. They receive their trade-in value on a UM Bookstore gift card, so that they can use it toward the purchase of a new device or anything in the bookstore. All trade-in are recycled through the I Store guidelines. If the items is not in good conditions and cannot be traded in, the store will accept it and send it to recycle through the I Store guidelines. The University collaborates with the Coral Gables municipality that organizes E Waste drives twice a year, open to any UM employee, student or faculty.

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

Optional Fields 

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:
69 Tons

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
137,946 LBS E waste recycled from our surplus warehouse in FY 2018

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.