| Overall Rating | Silver - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 55.52 |
| Liaison | Alan Burr |
| Submission Date | March 5, 2020 |
University of Wisconsin-Platteville
OP-20: Hazardous Waste Management
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
1.00 / 1.00 |
Amy
Seeboth-Wilson Sustainability Coordinator Facilities Management |
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?:
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.
3) We have dramatically reduced our use of coal in the past three years and currently are switching our central heating plant to 100% natural gas from coal. By December 2020 we will not use coal any longer and therefore will not have coal ash.
A brief description of how the institution safely disposes of hazardous, universal, and non-regulated chemical waste:
Any hazardous 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 waste is picked up by Veolia Environmental Services with whom we have a contract for proper disposal.
Our Universal Waste is handled through Pioneer Restore. Universal waste (primarily light bulbs and batteries) are taken by custodial staff to central areas where Pioneer Restore staff audit, package, and have it picked up at minimum every 12 months, by our third party verified handling agent (also Veoloia).
A brief description of any significant hazardous material release incidents during the previous three years, including volume, impact and response/remediation:
We did had one incident that, after review, was deemed to have not be a release.
A brief description of any inventory system employed by the institution to facilitate the reuse or redistribution of laboratory chemicals:
Risk Management is aware of chemical needs across campus and works to connect departments with available chemicals before disposing of them off-campus.
Does the institution have or participate in a program to responsibly recycle, reuse, and/or refurbish electronic waste generated by the institution?:
Does the institution have or participate in a program to responsibly recycle, reuse, and/or refurbish electronic waste generated by students?:
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. When a campus area (including students who live on campus) have unwanted e-waste, they can submit it to Pioneer Restore through their online pick up request form. All e-waste is handled through the Pioneer Restore. 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?:
Website URL where information about the institution’s hazardous waste program is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
S:\WGroups\Sustainability\B. Data and Reporting\Campus Reporting\AASHE STARS\2020 Report Stars v2.2\Data\14. Operations - Waste\OP20 - HazardousWaste
S:\WGroups\Sustainability\B. Data and Reporting\Campus Reporting\AASHE STARS\2020 Report Stars v2.2\Data\14. Operations - Waste\OP20 - HazardousWaste
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.