University of New Hampshire
OP-25: Hazardous Waste Management

In support of the University’s ongoing efforts to minimize costs, control liability, and maintain a sound environmental program, every effort is be made by UNH to minimize the generation of hazardous waste. To accomplish this objective, the USNH Council on Environmental Health and Safety has developed a Waste Minimization Strategy designed to identify and develop opportunities to control chemical use and reduce waste generation. Various methods have been identified and implemented. These include such actions as: Purchasing Control: Review of chemical purchases to ensure that appropriate materials and quantities are purchased. This helps to prevent purchasing too much of a material or material of the wrong type that could become a regulated waste. Periodic Inventory Evaluation: Evaluation of laboratory reagents for current use, transfer to virtual stockroom or disposal. Surplus List: An online system to match on-campus chemicals with university researchers to avoid the disposal of useful materials. Environmental Management System: The Solid Waste and Environmental Management Plan (SWEMP) is expected to reduce the volume of the solid waste stream, reduce the toxicity of the solid waste stream, increase re-use and recycling efforts, and promote pollution prevention at the University.

In accordance with the 2009 Hazardous Waste Management Plan, hazardous waste is safely disposed of in several ways. Proper packaging of hazardous waste is necessary to ensure safe transportation from point of origin to ultimate disposal. The selection of appropriate containers helps prevent leaks and spills that may result in human exposure or environmental release during material handling, storage and transport. Routine handling occurs on the campus, in transit to the disposal facility or during the disposal process. The selection of appropriate containers is only to be completed by the Coordinator of Hazardous Waste or the Hazardous Waste Specialist. Universal wastes are managed in accordance with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services' "Requirements for Universal Waste Management (Env-Wm 1100)." The Universal Waste Management Plan has been developed that outlines the procedures the University will take to properly manage universal wastes.

None.

UNH uses a home-made inventory program called UNHCEMS. The program tracks chemicals in labs, radioactive materials, biological materials, msds, prints out door signs, etc. Specifically for chemicals, there is a surplus list that allows faculty to offer chemicals they no longer use to others. The two parties are responsible for the transfer of that chemical. But beside that, many times a researcher will perform a chemical search in UNHCEMS to ask to use a small quantity of a chemical without the need to purchase a new container.

The SEED program began its first collection day with great success on March 5, 2010. The program includes the wiping of hard drive/disks and tapes to help University community members comply with the USNH System Access Policy on equipment with data storage capability. This program provides for the disposal of surplus equipment containing circuit boards such as computers, monitors, printers, peripherals, scientific equipment and audio-visual equipment. Materials are collected monthly at an on-campus drop-off site (1 Leavitt Lane).

All employee electronic equipment collected through the Safe Electronic Equipment Disposal (SEED) program is transferred to LifeSpan, a national e-waste recycling firm. The nearest location is an hour to the south in Boston, MA. LifeSpan works exclusively with EPA-registered and regulation-compliant partners to maintain the highest standards of environmental protection and ethical business practices. At UNH, workers' basic safety is addressed in two primary ways. First, SEED collection staff do not dismantle electronic equipment. Rather, they merely collect it. Second, all equipment must be registered for drop-off and is verified upon being received to ensure that no radioactive or hazardous materials are brought in (such materials are instead handled by USNH Surplus). LifeSpan states that environmental standards are met by complying with all federal, state, and local environmental regulations. Students during move-out days at the end of the spring semester can participate in Trash-2-Treasure. Starting in spring 2011 and in an effort to reduce UNH’s impact on landfills, the UNH Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) will be collecting all of the stuff that students throw away each year, storing it all over the summer, and then holding a large 3-day yard sale during move-in weekend to sell it all back to students. The goal is to create a sustainable program where we will be able to run the program next year with the money we make at the yard sale this year, and so on, for years to come: http://unh.edu/trash2treasure/index.html

Other contacts: Jeff Anderson and Marty McCrone in UNH Environmental Health and Safety: http://www.unh.edu/research/hazardous-waste-management