| Overall Rating | Bronze |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 26.82 |
| Liaison | Juan Martinez |
| Submission Date | June 6, 2022 |
University of Houston - Downtown
OP-20: Hazardous Waste Management
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
0.75 / 1.00 |
Juan
Martinez Sustainability Coordinator Department of Natural Sciences |
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:
Steps are taken to advise departments to only order products for the quarter or the year (if small quantities). It was recommended that laboratory experiments be set up as small as possible to reduce the waste amounts. Also, products used were reviewed to find less hazardous replacements or equipment to conduct without using hazardous solutions, thereby eliminating or reducing hazardous waste.
A brief description of how the institution safely disposes of hazardous, universal, and non-regulated chemical waste:
EHS collects properly labeled waste containers after receiving a form for Pick-Up. These will go to designated areas to be reviewed and processed for outside pickup for disposal or recycling. Any improperly labeled container(s) will be rejected and asked to be corrected prior to pick up. This has reduced the amount of unknown waste EHS receives, which is an added cost.
A brief description of any significant hazardous material release incidents during the previous three years, including volume, impact and response/remediation:
N/A
A brief description of any inventory system employed by the institution to facilitate the reuse or redistribution of laboratory chemicals:
Currently, this is handled on a case by case situation by Natural Science, as it occurs very infrequently.
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:
For recycling, we use Bass Computers, Inc. for all electronics recycling. The company provides us with a certificate every time they pick up electronics from UHD for recycling. The company also provides us a certificate of data destruction that lists all drives they wipe out. The electronics they recycle include PCs, laptops, monitors, printers, batteries, servers, network equipment, etc.
We also use special software to destroy data on hard drives (laptops and PCs) before Bass picks up the equipment for recycling to stay in compliance with State of Texas requirements.
Texas Administrative Code 202 specifies requirements for the proper disposal of computers at state institutions. UHD’s IT Division follows formal computer system reclaim and disposal procedures accordingly. Computer systems that are brought back in from the field as part of the Faculty and Staff Desktop Computing and Satellite Lab Refresh Programs or from other deployments are inventoried and inspected. A software application that wipes the computers’ hard disk to DOD 5220.22-M specifications is then used to prevent future recovery or access to data or applications previously stored on the system. Once this process is completed successfully, the systems are moved to a secured storage area and are ready for reuse or donation. Although most university computers are maintained by the IT Division, a few departments have computers that are maintained locally. When redeploying or disposing of these systems, departments should coordinate with IT and conduct proper disposal procedures for these systems to ensure that DOD 5220.22-M specifications are met.
We also have the IT Surplus Store where we provide used computers and laptops that are no longer used at UHD for sale to students at discounted prices (after wiping out the hard drives as stated above). This program was paused during the Pandemic because we started providing students in need with computers for use at home in coordination with the Dean of Students Office.
Is the institution’s electronic waste recycler certified under the e-Stewards and/or Responsible Recycling (R2) standards?:
Website URL where information about the institution’s hazardous waste program 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.