Oregon State University
OP-21: Hazardous Waste Management

Environmental Health and Safety at OSU encourages hazardous waste generators to reduce waste whenever possible. Specific reduction strategies include: Accurate labeling to prevent improper disposal of unknown hazardous material, combining flammable organic solvents for reuse as off-site fuel, separating halogenated solvents for solvent recovery, reusing/redistributing chemicals when materials come from unopened containers or partially used containers of high quality, neutralizing of chemical wastes which have corrosive properties, purchasing chemicals in a manner that does not exceed anticipated needs, and modifying procedures to reduce the hazard or amount of waste products or using less hazardous materials in procedures in general.

Environmental Health and Safety disposes of all hazardous waste in accordance with federal and state regulations. Federal regulations can be found at: https://www.epa.gov/rcra/resource-conservation-and-recovery-act-rcra-regulations Departments are encouraged to employ waste reduction procedures to limit costs and waste volumes. Prior to disposal of any hazardous chemical waste, OSU must perform an official hazardous waste determination to see if the waste is hazardous, and to what degree. Biological waste, cultures and stocks, pathological waste, and sharps are all considered hazardous and therefore are incinerated. All aerosol cans are considered hazardous waste until completely empty. The Facilities Services department has purchased several devices to open aerosol cans and drain contents, except for cans with pesticides or other highly toxic materials which should be treated with other hazardous wastes. Radioactive waste containers must have a record of materials in the container which is kept up-to-date. Radioactive waste is segregated by half-life and guidelines for storage and treatment of such waste (before disposal) is offered by the link provided below. https://ehs.oregonstate.edu/hmgrad

None.

Environmental Health and Safety at OSU makes available a chemical reuse inventory on their web page. These chemicals are available to departments for no charge. https://ehs.oregonstate.edu/sites/ehs.oregonstate.edu/files/pdf/si/chemicalreuse_si.pdf

All university-owned electronics are required to be disposed of through Surplus Property to ensure proper handling of e-waste. A description of the program is available at http://surplus.oregonstate.edu/surplus/departments-and-agencies/pick-request/electronics-disposal Any salable items are refurbished as needed and sold through Surplus Property for an extended useful life on or off campus. Information about sales is available at http://surplus.oregonstate.edu/surplus/departments-and-agencies/department-purchases (for OSU departments, local government and nonprofits) and http://surplus.oregonstate.edu/surplus/public-sales (for the public). Other electronics are sent for recycling through Universal Recycling Technologies (https://urtsolutions.com/). They accept most kinds of electronics with a few exceptions. Note: On January 1, 2010, it became illegal to dispose of televisions, laptops, and computers (CPU’s and Monitors) in any landfill in Oregon. On January 1, 2015, printers, computer mice and keyboards were added. That includes any of these items discarded in any OSU dumpster, including those at residence halls. This law incentivizes OSU to properly handle these items, however, OSU processes additional e-waste not covered by the law and our recycling program precedes the law.

Institution’s hazardous program info: http://oregonstate.edu/ehs/hmguide Institution’s electronic-waste recycling program info: http://fa.oregonstate.edu/surplus/departments-and-agencies/pick-request/electronics-disposal