Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 46.35
Liaison Alan Burr
Submission Date March 2, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Wisconsin-Platteville
OP-21: Hazardous Waste Management

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Amy Seeboth-Wilson
Sustainability Coordinator
Facilities Management
"---" 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:
Campus departments work closely with our Risk Management Department to reduce the quantities of hazardous, special, universal, and non-regulated chemical waste on campus. Policies that specifically reduce these quantities include: 1) Departments are responsible for both purchasing and paying a subsidized amount for the proper disposal of these items. Having departments bear the financial burden (within reason) of disposal helps assure that they make wiser decisions about what items to purchase. 2) Risk Management helps identify instances where campus program areas and even inter-campus sharing can occur of these materials, thus everyone can get more use out of the chemicals and supplies that are on hand.

A brief description of how the institution safely disposes of hazardous, universal, and non-regulated chemical waste:
Any hazardous, universal, and non-regulated chemical waste must be reported to the Risk Management office who will then pick up the waste, store it in a secure facility, and then divert it to one of several vendors depending upon the type of waste. The majority of our hazardous and universal waste is picked up by Veolia Environmental Services with whom we have a contract for proper disposal.

A brief description of any significant hazardous material release incidents during the previous three years, including volume, impact and response/remediation:
We have not had any significant hazardous material release incidents during the previous three years.

A brief description of any inventory system employed by the institution to facilitate the reuse or redistribution of laboratory chemicals:
When chemicals are reported to Risk Management for disposal, they are carefully documented by type and quantity.

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:
We contract with Universal Recycling Technology (URT) for all e-waste disposal. Students who live on campus are allowed to participate in this program (we are unable to accept items from off campus students at this time). All e-waste is handled through the University Surplus store. What is not kept on campus for resale in that store is packaged according to URT standards. When we have 14 pallets they will make a pickup at our campus. They take some items for free (like printers), charge a fee for others (like televisions), and pay us for still others (like wires and computers). Typically, URT ends up paying us for the pickups. They, in turn, refurbish and sell what they can and recycle the rest. URT always provides us with a certificate of destruction, guaranteeing that any data on our devices was property destroyed.

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:
13 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:
---

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.