| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 68.19 |
| Liaison | Ian Johnson |
| Submission Date | July 14, 2017 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
Colorado College
OP-21: Hazardous Waste Management
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
1.00 / 1.00 |
Luke
Scott Environmental Health and Safety Coordinator Facilities Services |
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?:
A brief description of steps taken to reduce hazardous, special (e.g. coal ash), universal, and non-regulated chemical waste:
Colorado College does not generate much “special” waste and those situations are evaluated on a case by case basis. The college does its best to reduce the amount of universal waste it sends for disposal by recycling as much as possible. The college recycles leftover paint, light bulbs, batteries and empty aerosol cans. Used motor oil is reused as fuel to heat the automotive shop at Colorado College.
The science departments on campus have also taken steps to reduce the amount of hazardous waste they generate by changing purchasing practices and changing lab procedures. The science departments are encouraged to purchase amounts of chemicals to match their needs instead of buying materials in bulk. They have also altered student lab experiments by substituting in less hazardous chemicals where possible and changing to microscale experiments which use smaller quantities of chemicals.
A brief description of how the institution safely disposes of hazardous, universal, and non-regulated chemical waste:
Colorado College is dedicated to the protection and conservation of the environment. Established Federal and state regulations require that the College ensure that hazardous, bio-hazardous and universal wastes be properly managed “cradle-to-grave”. The Environmental Health and Safety department is directly responsible for the management of these wastes for the College and works with a third party contractor to ensure the safe and legal disposal of the hazardous waste generated.
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 incidents within the previous three years.
A brief description of any inventory system employed by the institution to facilitate the reuse or redistribution of laboratory chemicals:
The Colorado College Department of Environmental Health and Safety operates a Chemical Redistribution Program which accepts both opened and unopened bottles of unwanted but still usable chemicals and lab ware, and redistributes them to others on campus. The redistribution of chemicals and lab ware is free to any interested college department or research laboratory. The program’s objective is to redistribute any useable chemical that would otherwise be disposed of as hazardous waste.
Does the institution have or participate in a program to responsibly recycle, reuse, and/or refurbish electronic waste generated by the institution?:
Does the institution have or participate in a program to responsibly recycle, reuse, and/or refurbish electronic waste generated by students?:
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:
The IT department organizes a monthly pick-up of electronic materials such as hard drives, floppy disks, laptops, keyboards, monitors, microwaves, scanners, cameras, cell phones, circuit boards, etc. Collection buckets for batteries and small electronics are located in the library, the student center, and the facilities office.
Is the institution’s electronic waste recycler certified under the e-Stewards and/or Responsible Recycling (R2) standards?:
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:
The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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.