University of Utah
OP-20: Electronic Waste Recycling Program

The Department of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) is ultimately responsible for all hazardous materials handling and disposal. All University equipment must be retired through University Surplus and Salvage, which assures data destruction per policy. Unsellable or damaged equipment is recycled through the State of Utah contract recycler, Metech, which is a Basel Action Network (BAN) certified e-steward responsible recycler. This company also is the preferred recycler for annual public electronics waste collection and recycling events that is held in conjunction with Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County and the Department of Environmental Quality. In 2011, the University of Utah hosted an electronics waste collection event sponsored by Apple for the first time. Staff from University Information Technology, the Office of Sustainability, and Salt Lake City met repeatedly with company representatives prior to agreeing to host the event in order to conduct due diligence on social and environmental stewardship for recycling since they were using a different contracted recycler. This information was was readily provided by Apple.

The University of Utah has moved forward with improvements in e-waste recycling with the help of several organizations: University Surplus and Salvage Department (US&S), University Information & Technology (UIT), and Environmental Health and Safety (EHS).

Below is a description of the University of Utah's e-waste recycling program/efforts:

•University Policy 3-40 requires equipment no longer usable or no longer required by the University to be sent to the US&S for processing. Materials are either recycled, sold to other University departments, or disposed of in the landfill.

•All items on sale at the US&S for longer than 15 day are then open for sale to the public for a total of 45 days.

• UIT promotes the posting of unwanted IT equipment on a mailing list to other University departments.

•The UIT Managers Group employs a hardware re-use program similar to Craigslist that diverts electronics to other departments rather than being sent to University Surplus and Salvage.
•The University currently contracts with Metech as the official e-waste recycling collection agency which as of October 2007 also recycles Cathode Ray Tube C.R.T. displays, collecting approximately 50-100 CRTs per week. Not all e-waste is targeted. This is mainly due to a 25 cent per pound charge from Metech.
•Displays (LCDs and CRTs) are sent to Metech
•Batteries sent to Environmental Health &Safety (EH&S) are then sent to Metech for recycling.
•Cell phones sent to EH&S are then given to Metech.
•Loose wire and circuit boards are collected by Western Metals.
•Non-loose circuit boards are sent to Cascade Refining.
•All sorted wire is sent to Utah Metals.
•All hard drives with known sensitive information are pulled from computers and crushed for scrap metal

Students are actively encouraged to participate in the community electronics waste collection event on campus every spring. In 2012, there will be an additional collection event during the spring semester residential living move-out. However, there is no system in place to assure that ALL student-owned equipment is recycled responsibly.