Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 58.54
Liaison Jay Price
Submission Date March 2, 2016
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

University of Tennessee at Knoxville
OP-25: Hazardous Waste Management

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Preston Jacobsen
Sustainability Manager
Facilities Services
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

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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

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A brief description of steps taken to reduce hazardous, special (e.g. coal ash), universal, and non-regulated chemical waste:
The University of Tennessee adopted a Hazardous Waste Minimization Policy in 2012. This policy can be found here: http://web.utk.edu/~ehss/safety%20manual/smpdf/Haz%20Waste%20minimization%20plan%202012.pdf Additionally, the Environmental Health and Safety Office at UT has developed a Hazardous Waste Reduction Plan. They have also published a list called 101 Ways to Reduce Hazardous Waste in the Laboratory (http://web.utk.edu/~ehss/pdf/101wrhwl.pdf), as well as other guides and resources, which can be found on their website (http://web.utk.edu/~ehss/Hazardous%20Waste%20Management/hwm.html).

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A brief description of how the institution safely disposes of hazardous, universal, and non-regulated chemical waste:
All hazardous waste created on campus is disposed of through the EHS. The waste must be labeled with UT hazardous waste labels and stored properly prior to collection. Management of hazardous waste on campus by EHS includes waste characterization, record keeping and report, liaison with regulators, preparation and submittal of the annual report, maintenance of the Hazardous Waste Reduction Plan, including metrics, schedule waste pickup.

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A brief description of any significant hazardous material release incidents during the previous three years, including volume, impact and response/remediation:
There have been no significant hazardous material release incidents during the previous three years.

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A brief description of any inventory system employed by the institution to facilitate the reuse or redistribution of laboratory chemicals:
EHS maintains a Chemical Exchange program, in which people can exchange unwanted chemicals with others on campus. The chemicals or products must be unopened, unused, and not have expired. If someone has chemicals they no longer need, they can contact EHS to pick up the items. The EHS website also has a list of chemicals that are available via this program.

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Does the institution have or participate in a program to responsibly recycle, reuse, and/or refurbish all electronic waste generated by the institution?:
Yes

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Does the institution have or participate in a program to responsibly recycle, reuse, and/or refurbish electronic waste generated by students?:
Yes

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A brief description of the electronic waste recycling program(s):
UT recycling collects cell phones, small batteries, laptop batteries, personal printer and toner cartridges, calculators, MP3 players, CDs and DVDs, power cords and accessory cases at electronic waste stations around campus. Working calculators are donated to Calculators To Classrooms. Larger items that cannot fit in the bins can be picked up via a service request form.

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A brief description of steps taken to ensure that e-waste is recycled responsibly, workers’ basic safety is protected, and environmental standards are met:
UT's electronic waste is disposed of by Arrow Value Recovery. Arrow makes every effort to extend the life of electronic assets, including repairing, refurbishing, redeploying, remarketing, donating and harvesting usable parts. But when electronics have no further reuse opportunity, their recycling processes exceed the norm. Arrow’s environmental policies are not only consistent with R2, RIOS, and ISO 14001 standards, but additionally require due diligence beyond just focus materials, all the way downstream and across all geographies to keep materials out of the waste stream.

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The website URL where information about the institution’s hazardous and electronic-waste recycling programs is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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