University of Nebraska - Lincoln
OP-20: Hazardous Waste Management

A number of Safe Operating Procedures regarding waste management can be found on the Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) web site at http://ehs.unl.edu/sop under the heading of "Waste Management."

Hazardous Waste – EHS consolidates many of the hazardous waste streams to save on volume and costs. Numerous halogenated and/or hon-halogenated solvent wastes from the laboratories are received in 4-liter glass bottles. These can be bulked into 55-gallon drums based on compatibilities. Aerosol cans are punctured, waste liquids collected and the metal recycled from the cans. Departments at UNL try to use less hazardous chemicals when it is possible. UNL’s hazardous waste vendor uses fuel blending as opposed to direct incineration whenever it is possible.
Special Waste – EHS makes proper waste determinations that keep some of the waste streams from being shipped as a hazardous waste. Many of these items fall into the special waste categories. Landscape services keep all of the wood from trees, leaves, grass clippings, etc., to turn into mulch to use on campus as opposed to taking it offsite. The power plants update equipment and control technologies to be good stewards to the environment. No coal is burned at the power plants and therefore there is no coal ash to take to the landfill.

Universal Waste – EHS provides collection containers for numerous universal waste streams and collects them regularly (e.g., high mercury fluorescent lamps, HID lamps, LED’s, batteries, smoke detectors). UNL has re-lamping projects that change-out old ballasts and lamps to replace with more efficient and less hazardous components. All of these items are recycled through a few vendors.

Non-regulated chemical waste – many of these materials are considered non-hazardous, but are still considered regulated in some way. Many of the laboratory chemicals are still shipped through our waste vendor to keep these out of the landfill. Our used oil, oil filters and antifreeze are shipped with a vendor for recycling.

UNL has a program in place to safely dispose of all hazardous, special, universal, and non-regulated chemical waste and seeks to minimize the presence of these materials on campus. Purchasing controls have been implemented to facilitate just-in-time delivery of chemicals to avoid the need for over-purchasing. EHS publishes guidance on purchasing the smallest feasible quantities and safe storage practices to avoid unnecessary waste production. All chemical wastes are securely managed through the EHS Department with limited access, which is then responsible to ensure safe off-site treatment and disposal at permitted and reputable waste treatment facilities. Treatment technologies that favor energy recovery and recycling are favored.

There have not been any significant hazardous material releases in the past three years.

EHS encourages chemical redistribution as part of the laboratory decommissioning process and attempts to redistribute feasible quantities of unused chemicals rather than disposing of them as waste. Each department at UNL is responsible for redistributing and reusing any chemicals that are still considered good to use.
If EHS receives requests to do large lab clean-outs of chemicals, any useable chemicals are segregated out for reuse by the departments.

UNL has a program in place to recycle, reuse, and/or refurbish all unwanted electronic and computer equipment. All UNL electronics are collected and sorted by Inventory Services and/or EHS. Any items that have a resell value are offered for sale at a public auction through Inventory Services. Any items that have no resell value or fail to sell at auction are containerized and delivered to EHS for indoor storage in the EHS Warehouse. All of these UNL and student containers of electronic waste are recycled through Apple, Inc.

UNL operates a yearly electronics waste collection program during residence hall move-out each spring which is available to all students. EHS places cubic yard boxes annually at the major housing units for students to place TV’s, computers, printers, and other electronics when they move-out. The UNL Computer and Phone Shop also collects cell phones throughout the year. Several community outlets are readily available as well.