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Is your college prepared to manage hazardous waste safely and stay RCRA-compliant? Learn essential steps for lab pack waste preparation, new regulations, and choosing the right disposal company to avoid costly fines.
College and Universities that produces any regulated or hazardous waste that can’t simply be thrown away in the trash can needs to have a well-planned and cost-effective waste management plan.
Most universities and colleges, with their laboratories and medical facilities, have hazardous materials on site that need to be stored and disposed of properly. Failure to do so can result in massive fines and punitive actions being taken against the educational institution. Because proper management of these waste streams is so important, the following are some crucial things to keep in mind regarding how to manage hazardous waste within your academic setting.
While most colleges don’t typically consider themselves to be large generators of hazardous material, they do often generate it. Whether your college is dealing with chemicals associated with the aquatic center or fertilizer from the ground’s keepers, colleges produce hazardous waste that needs to be specially dealt with.
As generators of hazardous waste, it’s critical for universities to have written, documented hazardous waste disposal guidelines for their employees. These help ensure safety regulations are known throughout the university campus and not just certain rooms or buildings on a campus. Every department that has anything to do with hazardous materials should know and understand these laws. If your university is without such guidelines or documents, create one.
Any school or university that has a laboratory (especially anything associated with a chemistry department) more often than not has expired samples and chemicals that need to be safely disposed via proper lab pack disposal. Improper disposal of any hazardous materials increase both security risks as well as compliance breaches, resulting in fines and penalties for the university or education facility.
If your college or university generates laboratory waste, it’s imperative you know how to safely and legally store, ship, and treat that waste. But with so many local, state, and federal regulations regarding this kind of waste disposal, it can be overwhelming to remember every little task. Unfortunately, one missed step in the lab pack process could lead to serious consequences, which is why a checklist becomes so important.
There’s no denying that proper lab pack disposal is essential to any organization that must treat and remove their expired chemicals, but it’s particularly essential in a college or university setting. If your university or college has laboratories that require these services, poor lab packs could mean more than just improperly discarded chemicals; it could mean real safety hazards for your students and staff.
It is vital that every college has a researched, thorough, written hazardous waste management system in place for several key reasons. One, universities and colleges, whether they realize it or not, tend to generate a lot of hazardous material that needs to be properly disposed of. Two, failing to properly dispose of hazardous materials can lead to serious fines, and three, improper storage and disposal could pose health and safety risks—to the staff and students. With so much on the line, what does your university need to do to ensure it has the right hazardous waste management system?
Chemical hazardous waste within a university setting needs to be properly disposed of. Not following the correct steps can quickly lead to unsafe situations (for students and staff) as well as fines for improper waste disposal. To avoid these negative consequences at your university, make sure the following steps are within your hazardous waste management plan.
