Wells College
OP-25: Hazardous Waste Management

The campus is actively seeking to phase out fluorescent lighting in favor of LED lighting, reducing the most substantial component of our universal waste. The college is being more mindful of the waste disposal impacts of certain products, so actively seeks more environmentally-friendly and non-toxic cleaners and building care products. Professors in the Chemistry Department have attended workshops on “Green Chemistry” where they learned experiments to teach the students which use less hazardous chemicals.

Wells makes provisions for onsite collection of hazardous, universal and non-regulated chemical waste. The College contracts for safe transport and appropriate disposal of hazardous waste, universal waste, and non-regulated chemical waste. The campus Environmental Health & Safety Officer is housed in our science building, Stratton Hall; inside that facility, the College which maintains a separate, secure room for collection of hazardous materials and chemical wastes until the time of contracted removal and proper disposal. Wells College has hazardous waste picked up by Clean Harbors. Collected used fluorescent tubes are picked up by Safety-Kleen or small screw-in fluorescent lamps are collected for proper recycling by the Wells College Center for Sustainability and the Environment. Universal waste materials, especially fluorescent tubes, are collected and safely stored in secure areas in various locations on campus until sufficient quantities are generated to merit contracted transport and safe disposal. The college maintains battery collection containers and transports any potentially hazardous batteries to special regional collection centers for proper disposal.

According to Cheryl Lewkowicz, the College Environmental Health and Safety officer, Wells has not experienced any such incidents in recent years.

The Chemistry, Biology and Environmental Science departments have a joint inventory of all chemicals kept in the science building. This inventory spreadsheet is kept by the science building's Lab Manager and is available to all faculty in the building.

Information Technology maintains an e-waste collection container for such materials generated in offices and science labs, but also accepts e-waste generated by students. In addition, any electronic e-waste collected during the Trash2Treasure moveout collection or throughout the year from students or employees depositing such items in either the Bargain Basement or RUMPUS Room are diverted to ITs e-waste collection.

We contract with RCR&R for e-waste recycling. As a founding member of the International Association of Electronics Recyclers, RCR&R has served as a pioneer in setting best-of-class standards in the industry. The company operates a large-scale processing, consolidation, sorting, and first level de-manufacturing facility in Victor, New York (Rochester) and emphasizes environmentally sound processing methods for maximizing value and recovery while minimizing and/or eliminating disposal of electronics in landfills. RCR&R is a registered C7 electronic waste recycling facility with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, in compliance with the NYS Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act. In addition, RCR&R has achieved and maintains several industry certifications, including: Recycling Industry Operating Standard (RIOS), Responsible Recycling (R2) standard, National Association for Information Destruction (NAID).