| Overall Rating | Platinum |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 85.89 |
| Liaison | Jennifer Andrews |
| Submission Date | Oct. 24, 2024 |
University of New Hampshire
OP-20: Hazardous Waste Management
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
1.00 / 1.00 |
Brian
Cournoyer Coordinator Environmental Health & Safety |
Part 1. Hazardous waste minimization and disposal
A brief description of steps taken to reduce hazardous, special (e.g. coal ash), universal, and non-regulated chemical waste:
In support of the University’s ongoing efforts to minimize costs, control liability, and maintain a sound environmental program, every effort is be made by UNH to minimize the generation of hazardous waste. To accomplish this objective, the USNH Council on Environmental Health and Safety has developed a Waste Minimization Strategy designed to identify and develop opportunities to control chemical use and reduce waste generation. Various methods have been identified and implemented. These include such actions as:
Purchasing Control: Review of chemical purchases to ensure that appropriate materials and quantities are purchased. This helps to prevent purchasing too much of a material or material of the wrong type that could become a regulated waste.
Periodic Inventory Evaluation: Evaluation of laboratory reagents for current use, transfer to virtual stockroom or disposal.
Surplus List: An online system to match on-campus chemicals with university researchers to avoid the disposal of useful materials.
Environmental Management System: The Solid Waste and Environmental Management Plan (SWEMP) is expected to reduce the volume of the solid waste stream, reduce the toxicity of the solid waste stream, increase re-use and recycling efforts, and promote pollution prevention at the University.
A brief description of how the institution safely disposes of hazardous, universal, and non-regulated chemical waste:
In accordance with the 2010 Hazardous Waste Management Plan (see https://unh.app.box.com/s/fws3xwgvjgaln6gemed4o6brd8bvyiwo), hazardous waste is safely disposed of in several ways. Proper packaging of hazardous waste is necessary to ensure safe transportation from point of origin to ultimate disposal. The selection of appropriate containers helps prevent leaks and spills that may result in human exposure or environmental release during material handling, storage and transport. Routine handling occurs on the campus, in transit to the disposal facility or during the disposal process. The selection of appropriate containers is only to be completed by the Coordinator of Hazardous Waste or the Hazardous Waste Specialist.
Universal wastes are managed in accordance with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services' "Requirements for Universal Waste Management (Env-Wm 1100)." The Universal Waste Management Plan has been developed that outlines the procedures the University will take to properly manage universal wastes.
A brief description of any significant hazardous material release incidents during the previous three years, including volume, impact and response/remediation:
None.
A brief description of any inventory system employed by the institution to facilitate the reuse or redistribution of laboratory chemicals:
UNH uses an inventory program called UNHCEMS. The program tracks chemicals in labs, radioactive materials, biological materials, msds, prints out door signs, etc. For more information see https://www.unh.edu/research/unhcems
Specifically for chemicals, there is a surplus list that allows faculty to offer chemicals they no longer use to others. The two parties are responsible for the transfer of that chemical. But beside that, many times a researcher will perform a chemical search in UNHCEMS to ask to use a small quantity of a chemical without the need to purchase a new container.
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 students?:
If yes to either of the above, provide:
Institutonal Program
The Safe Electronic Equipment Disposal (SEED) program provides for the disposal of surplus UNH equipment containing circuit boards such as computers, monitors, printers, peripherals, scientific equipment and audio-visual equipment.
For university-owned equipment, staff and faculty are instructed in the wiping of hard drive/disks and tapes, pre-donation, to help them comply with the USNH System Access Policy on equipment with data storage capability.
Materials are collected monthly at an on-campus drop-off site (1 Leavitt Lane).
UNH contracts with Coretek to (ideally) repurpose or (if necessary) recycle the items. Coretek is R2v3/RIOS certified. They provide UNH detailed reports and certificates of responsible disposal.
Student Programs
The Sustainabilty Institute partners with UNH ET&S and other campus partners to do 1-2 student (and community) facing e-waste collection drives annually. For those drives, any computers that meet UNH specications are refurbished and recirculated through UNH's Loaner Laptop program. For all other items, Coretek refurbishes and redeploys them, or recycles them.
Student are also able to give e-waste to the Trash2 Treasure program at the end of the spring semester, and T2T ensures it is disposed of safely.
Is the institution’s electronic waste recycler certified under the e-Stewards and/or Responsible Recycling (R2) standards?:
Optional Fields
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Other contacts: Jeff Anderson and Marty McCrone in UNH Environmental Health and Safety: http://www.unh.edu/research/hazardous-waste-management
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.