Plastic bins or tin cans, a normal piece of trash doesn't take much notice. But there are other types of waste, types produced here on campus, that can't be tossed away.
While students are encouraged to reduce, reuse and recycle municipal waste, it is less common to hear about the regulated waste here on campus. For example, in 2006 UNH generated 70,672 lbs of hazardous waste according to Hazardous Waste Coordinator Marty McCrone of the Office of Environmental Health and Safety (OEHS).
Hazardous, or chemical waste, as defined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), poses a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or living organisms. It may even be lethal or tend to cause detrimental effects over time if not contained.
Along with hazardous waste, UNH created 1,818 cubic feet of biohazardous or infectious waste in 2006. Primarily produced in life science labs, it is defined as laboratory waste such as pathological specimens and disposable fomites, which is any substance that may harbor or transmit pathogenic organisms.
UNH also produces amounts of radioactive waste. Volumes produced depend on the types of active research projects, and vary year to year, said McCrone. Radio active waste that has a half-life of less then 65 days is held on campus in a decay storage program until it is no longer radio active, and is then transferred to a waste broker.
Other types of regulated wastes include Universal waste which is separated into electronics, batteries and lamps. In 2006 McCrone said UNH disposed of 76,760 lbs of electronics, 6,656 lbs of batteries, 10,611 light bulbs.
While each type of waste is handled differently due to regulations, the process is generally the same. No regulate waste is disposed of on campus, but gathered in secure areas and then shipped elsewhere. All regulated waste is managed by the OEHS, which follows university and government regulations. When any type of regulated waste is produced it is put into labeled containers and picked up by OEHS before it is shipped to a waste broker. That private company then transports and coordinates the final disposal of waste through methods like incineration or stabilization.
It is McCrone's job to manage and transport waste before it is picked up by outside companies. His primary concern is contamination on the outside of the container. If that happens, said McCrone, OEHS requires the generator to decontaminate the container. Waste containers are never carried by hand, said McCrone. Rather, containers are put in Styrofoam lined cardboard boxes and rolled out of labs on two-wheeled dollies to OEHS vehicles. They are then driven to the university's central hazardous waste accumulation area (CAA). Once at the CAA environmental law requires that the waste container must be shipped off campus for disposal in less than 90 days.
Though McCrone has been managing regulated waste for fourteen years, he said there haven't been a lot of close calls, and has had only three containers break accidentally. Through training, consultation, and partnerships, OEHS makes available federal and state standards to the university community. Dr. Julie Bryce, assistant professor of Geochemistry, follows the guidelines set by OEHS seriously.
"The rules are pretty strict," said Bryce. "You can't even dump rubbing alcohol down the drain."
However, Bryce said OEHS makes their expectations clear and understands the need for regulation of hazardous waste.
"The one nice thing here is that the rules are very straightforward," said Bryce. "It takes effort to be careless and I don't know of anyone who is."
OEHS follows strict procedures and educates others to handle waste in the same manner. However, their job starts at collecting waste containers from labs. For regulated waste to make it into proper containers it takes students and professors acting sensibly.
"UNH has nearly 170 locations generating hazardous waste," said McCrone. "OEHS is very dependent on student, staff and faculty to manage hazardous waste in compliance with state and federal laws."
Some professors, Bryce included, test student knowledge on how to handle regulated waste as part of a first exam or a quiz on Blackboard. However, while students are often instructed how to act around chemical waste, procedures aren't always enforced in labs.
"Some chemicals are worse then others," said Kelly Blais, a Marine Biology major. "You always put the worse ones in waste containers. Sometimes you're told to sometimes you're not. It is not really that strict. There is not a teacher following you around saying 'Don't put that down the sink.'"
Biology major Piper Bartlett agreed.
"They do tell you to," Bartlett said of her four hour Biochemistry lab, "but it is not enforced. They don't sit by the bucket and make sure. Students aren't careful. A lot of the time you just want to get out of there."
Some students are preoccupied by other processes of the lab when it comes to disposing waste.
"I would say it is split 50/50. Sometimes I just want to get out of lab and the waste containers are in another room so I just dump it down the drain," said Blais who is currently taking Biochemistry also. "Half the time I forget. It is a four hour lab and you are thinking about other things."
Bryce said her graduate students are careful when disposing chemicals. Bryce tries to be selective about what experiments are performed in her labs.
"With Earth Science you get people who care about the environment and don't want to put toxins into it," said Bryce. "When isolating certain metals we use acids, but we know it costs the university and environment. We try to always do optimal procedures and often our waste is diluted acid. We try to avoid the nasty stuff."
Still most hazardous waste on campus is from research. At UNH 85 percent of hazardous waste is generated by research projects, said McCrone, while general administrative functions and teaching only account for a combined 15 percent
Because of this, McCrone said it is difficult to limit regulated waste production in a university environment. Based on 2005 data collected by the EPA "National Biennial RCRA Hazardous Waste Report," which lists all large producers of hazardous waste, UNH produced 19 tons of hazardous waste. This is less then other top local research universities like MIT, which produced 190 tons and UMASS Amherst, 51 tons of hazardous waste.
"Waste minimization gains are hard won in the research setting due to required standard methods, protocols, and the absolute need for reproducible experimental results," said McCrone.
Though chemical waste alone accounts for over 70,000 lbs, this is a relatively small amount compared to the amount of unregulated waste produced on campus. For example for 2006 the total recycled paper, plastic, and aluminum was 453 tons, and that is just a portion of the University's total solid waste stream.
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