Overall Rating Bronze
Overall Score 26.56
Liaison Noah Hughes
Submission Date Dec. 31, 2022

STARS v2.2

Modesto Junior College
OP-20: Hazardous Waste Management

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.75 / 1.00 Noah Hughes
Prof of Earth Sciences
Earth Sciences
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1. Hazardous waste minimization and disposal

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:
Chemistry Dept: As far as reducing chemical waste, almost all of the organic labs have been converted to microscale techniques. This drastically reduces the volume of organic waste we generate. Also, they have also rewritten many of the labs to use more benign chemicals where possible. For example, the freezing point depression lab used to use hexane; we have rewritten it to use lauric acid as well as a few other solid organic acids (which are less hazardous than hexane)

A brief description of how the institution safely disposes of hazardous, universal, and non-regulated chemical waste:
Chemistry Dept has a system set up where they collect any chemical waste that should not be discharged into the waste stream. Chemistry Lab Technician (Matt Page) stores that waste in a safe location until we reach a volume that makes it worth calling in an outside waste disposal company, at which time we do. The outside company removes the waste from campus and disposes of it.
Broader campus: A chemical sweep is done quarterly and the material is removed. This includes paint, photography fluids, and anything of dairy units. Make sure that it is lead and asbestos free and a contractor removes waste appropriately. Asbestos-containing material is removed into a specific dumpsite which is owned(?) by the district. Polluted dirt is also diluted so the soil can be reused.

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:
none

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 the institution?:
Yes

Does the institution have or participate in a program to responsibly recycle, reuse, and/or refurbish electronic waste generated by students?:
No

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:
IT department collects E-waste in a E-waste bin. The bin is removed by K and K Electronics Recycling who transfers the material to an R2 certified recycler. We have an 80% diversion rate for E-waste.

Is the institution’s electronic waste recycler certified under the e-Stewards and/or Responsible Recycling (R2) standards?:
Yes

Optional Fields 

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:
Information about Chemistry Dept practices from Prof Joe Caddell, Chem Dept.

Information about broader campus prectices from Judy Lanchester.

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