Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 76.21
Liaison Lindsey Kalkbrenner
Submission Date May 5, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Santa Clara University
OP-21: Hazardous Waste Management

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Sean Collins
Senior Director, Environment, Health & Safety and Sustainability
University Operations
"---" 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:
Universal waste is recycled. Identified wastes for a particular area are segregated based on category and collected accordingly. Environment Health and Safety (EHS) or the Department Lab Manager pick up the waste from respective labs, shops, studios on campus and consolidate for quarterly pickup by a third party vendor. For hazardous waste and non-regulated chemical wastes, we have focused on alternative disposal practices including waste to energy and fuels blending solutions.

A brief description of how the institution safely disposes of hazardous, universal, and non-regulated chemical waste:
Depending on the waste stream, wastes are collected by EHS or the Department Lab Manager, segregated and stored appropriately for quarterly pickup. SCU uses a third-party hazardous waste vendor to consolidate, transport and dispose of hazardous and non-hazardous waste streams appropriately. SCU now diverts a significant amount of its laboratory waste which previously was incinerated to both fuels blending and waste to energy solutions. Fuels blending waste streams include - aerosols, non-recyclable paints, mixed organic solvents, RCRA regulated lab debris. The most outstanding waste redirection has been to a Waste to Energy program for the non-RCRA regulated lab debris. This material is sorted/checked at the time of packing for transportation/disposal, but the Waste to Energy option is made feasible from a waste collection process/program already executed by the science departments at SCU because of the way we segregate our waste in the labs. Much of this waste is contaminated gloves and PPE, which was previously offered for incineration. It is the single largest waste stream generated by the laboratories at Santa Clara University.

A brief description of any significant hazardous material release incidents during the previous three years, including volume, impact and response/remediation:
None to report.

A brief description of any inventory system employed by the institution to facilitate the reuse or redistribution of laboratory chemicals:
SCU has an online chemical management system that utilizes barcoded chemical containers which allow faculty to verify existing chemical inventory prior to ordering new chemicals. All faculty have access to our inventory system. Users include faculty researchers, lab managers and EHS. Users are trained annually to utilize the system to track their inventories and search the campus for existing chemicals they can borrow prior to ordering new stock in an effort to minimize the total volume of chemicals purchased and stored.

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:
Students can bring E-Waste & Universal Waste items to receptacles in their residence halls. Faculty and Staff can submit an online E-Waste pickup request to the Facilities department. Also, Information Technology operates the PC Replacement Program that donates roughly 600 computers to local non-profit organizations each year. Recipients are incentivized to dispose properly because the disposal fees are prepaid, and they have agreed to do so as part of the donation agreement.

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:
26.99 Tons

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
https://www.scu.edu/sustainability/operations/waste/

Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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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.