GOOD PRACTICE
dave.ramos
24-01-2011
25-10-2010

Social responsibility of higher education

Management

Waste Management HE Procedures, Hazardous Materials
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Hazardous Waste Management at the University of Alicante

University of Alicante
SPAIN
Europe

Contact Information

Vicente Montiel Leguey


  

The processing of dangerous substances in laboratories is an activity that involves a certain risk on the part of the people who handle these products. These risks to human beings are on top of the environmental dangers an uncontrolled landfill can pose. For these reasons, the university has emphasized the development of a system of management for all campus laboratories that minimizes the environmental and human hazards that come with these activities.

From the Office of EcoCampus at the University of Alicante (UA), all of the technical assignments and management derived from this system are coordinated. The Management of Hazardous Waste in the University of Alicante represents a first step towards the integration of the Environmental Management system throughout the entire campus. According to the appropriate model set by ISO 14001, the management system would ensure all the required quality, labour, prevention, and of course, environmental standards.
From the Office of the EcoCampus on the University of Alicante (UA), all of the technical assignments and management derived from this system are coordinated. Until now, only external reviews for waste management protocols existed. That is, the techs of the different departments housed their toxic waste in their own lab, according to their own criteria and then had an authorized outside company come and remove the hazardous material. This meantthat the perilous residual waste stay housed on the worksite during the 6 months that legislation marked as the maximum period of storage, and with it came the risk it brought to students, since some centres stored large quantities of these materials.

The university detected the necessity for an internal waste management system in order to avoid its storage at the work site. It was also important in bringing awareness to staff in order to minimize personal and environmental perils, and to implement commonly-used laboratory methodology that is in line with current legislation (correct packaging, labelling, and waste identification).

Note: Sanitary waste is regulated under a different system, since the current legislation (Government of Valencia Decree 240/1994, 22 November) does not allow it to be stored where it was produced for more than 72 hours, unless it has a refrigerated storage system.



The Hazardous Waste Management program at the University of Alicante represents a first step towards the integration of a System of Environmental Management on the entire campus, following general quality-assurance standards, prevention of workplace risks, and of course, environmental standards according to the ISO 14001 model.

In 2002, the university created a working group whose function was to develop the procedural and technical instructions needed for the development of the Hazardous Waste Management System of UA. The objective is not only to comply with legislation on the management of dangerous waste (RD 833/1988, modified by RD 952/1997), but also to raise work quality levels, worker and student safety, and the environmental consciousness of all involved parties.

Currently, the University of Alicante works to keep the system constantly updated, adapting to institutional needs and those arising from technological development, policy implementation, and from the actual experience of all those involved.


The implantation of this internal system of dangerous waste management, common amongst other production units of the university, has permitted the identification of different types of waste that is generated by the university and has allowed the development of an internal waste-classification structure that is recognized and used by all the laboratories on campus. At the same time, different groups of waste have been organized into subcategories which prevent the incorrect storing of some hazardous materials with other wastes that, when combined, could produce a dangerous reaction.

The different subgroups use a colour-coded system that allows for fast and simple identification. This helps staff and students to rapidly identify waste in laboratories according to the correct container, thus avoiding perilous mix-ups.

The classification of UA hazardous waste consists of 25 groups that are organized according to the following subgroups (see preventive example 02: generic groups and subgroups of hazardous waste):

  • Flammables
  • Corrosives (inorganic acids)
  • Corrosives (organic acids)
  • Corrosive (alkali)
  • Toxic liquids

The University of Alicante has also adopted several on-campus chemical storage areas. There are a total of six storage zones (one for each subgroup enumerated above) that comply with the requirements established in the Decree of the Storage of Chemical By-Products and its complementary technical instructions (RD 379/2001): small liquid containers, fireproof floors, doors, and 10 centimetre waterproof walls, etc.

These waste storehouses are identified with the same colour-codes that appear on the labels of the different waste groups. This colour-coded system helps prevent waste-storage errors such as the throwing-away of toxic waste in the wrong storage zone.

Thanks to this internal management system we can identify the quantities of waste produced by the university in general, along with the hazardous waste produced by each individual laboratory. This of course, is an essential step in reducing toxic waste levels.
The first thing that was done was to identify the different laboratories that were generating dangerous waste and to ask the directors of the corresponding departments to designate one worker as responsible for hazardous waste management. This is the contact person related to all waste management within the specific department and with the EcoCampus office. Having just one contact person has facilitated the management, production, and storage control processes. All of the waste containers are perfectly identified with their corresponding tags, pictograms of peril, type of waste contained, etc. The laboratory waste management contact person is the point of reference for the EcoCampus Office (along with its internal waste management needs) and any lab personnel in doubt over how to classify any given toxic material.

This internal management consists of periodic waste removal (approximately every 2 months) that is moved by the maintenance company of the university to the corresponding on-campus waste storage sites. After two weeks of being in storage, the chemicals are transferred by an authorized corporation. Even with this, a special procedure has been developed in the case of the movement of exceptionally hazardous materials, outside of the EcoCampus Office, for circumstances under which the moment which should arise.

In order to organize these programmed removals, the EcoCampus Office emails the laboratory the dates in which there will be toxic waste removal. The lab contact person should be the first to know and fills out a form that indicates the number of containers, each type of substance, and their capacity. This complementary registry is mailed to the Office of EcoCampus by the contact person of each lab. The EcoCampus receives registers of different types of laboratories and this allows for the compilation of the specific levels of waste produced by each laboratory.

With the all the registers of waste removal provided by the different labs, the EcoCampus Office has developed a series of new registers that reflect all the varied information sent by the labs. These registers are then given to the outside maintenance company of the university which, during the programmed dates, gathers all the waste and moves it to the appropriate warehousing zone. The removal of the dangerous residual waste on part of the outside company is also done using the ‘subgrouping’ system. This is important in that it prevents dangerous mixtures of once isolated substances that, once put in close proximity with each other, could mix and have explosive results outside the university, say during transportation. This helps spread the commitment of the university to environmental safety beyond the borders of its own campus.

The maintenance staff in charge of the waste removal has obtained special training from the Prevention Service of the University of Alicante. Additionally, they wear protective garments (chemical-resistant gloves, protective sunglasses, anti-acid suits and masks) and vehicles have fire extinguishers, absorbent material to control liquid spillage, and liquid-retention barrels.

All the internal deliveries and removal of waste is documented with a series of registers where the signatures of the involved parties are verified. In this manner, with the signature stamp, the transport process can be better controlled, tracked, and streamlined. In case the waste storage manager has doubts in regards to the content of a container, he or she may look up its origin, and find the appropriate contact person with respect to said container.

This entire system is based on a series of procedures and instructions developed by techs at the UA (see annex I). This system has been improving with the experience obtained with time and practice. All of this information is published on the EcoCampus Office website and is available for consultation in any given moment:
http://www.ua.es/es/presentacion/vicerrectorado/vr.viema/ecocampus/index.html

The documentation that can be found is not only in reference to the management system. It also has published documentation about procedures in case of spills, other types of leakage, electrical or shock-charge issues, storage incompatibilities, etc.,

On the website you will also find the colour-coded system and the identification labels of different groups of waste. To help with doubts in the classification of a determined toxic residual, there is a web-based database, ‘Automatic classifier of toxic waste.’ This internet application allows for the searches of the names of different hazardous toxins and the direct printout of the correct label.

Without a doubt, the main result achieved has been the raising of awareness of all stakeholders in these processes towards the better management of hazardous waste. More and more waste is being properly managed, which implies that, in a few years, the university will have gone from a small to large producer of hazardous waste.
 
In 2007 more than 30Tn have been processed, though this does not mean that the university has an elevated activity level, but that the awareness level of students and staff has been raised.
The students follow a waste management policy identical in all laboratories. This enables them to identify how to manage specific waste and also helps professors to include practice standards, along with which group has to dump the waste generated. But of most importance is that the student becomes aware of the waste products dangerousness and that they must be managed in a certain, established format. Once these students enter the labour market, and find themselves in a situation where they come into contact with hazardous waste, they will know how to manage that waste.
Another one of the achieved objectives has been the adaptation of waste storage sites and their accompanying technical instructions. The Hazardous Waste Management System storage areas and the university Pilot Plants have situated the university as one of the first in Spain to obtain 8 Certifications of Quality Assurance in Integrated Waste Management (ISO 9001 and ISO 14001) in the development of complex processes in applied research. There are yearly internal and external assessment audits, along with a recertification process every three years. With other universities, the waste management company has to go to each laboratory to pick up waste while at the University of Alicante, they just have to go the collective storage areas to pick-up the well-labelled waste. Also, there is little interference in the daily on-campus activity of students because there are no waste disposal trucks moving around in-between collection sites. The benefits of this internal management system led, in January of 2005, the Universitat de Barcelona to invite the Industrial Hygiene Technician of the AU to explain the hazardous waste management system of the UA on the 2nd day of the Permanent Greening Seminar to a working group of the CRUE (Environmental Quality and Sustainable Development).
There was much enthusiasm on part of the impressed seminar participants and some universities have contacted the University of Alicante for more information. This is on top of the several companies and high schools who have also contacted us with the interest of being assessed in terms of environmentally-aware hazardous waste management.
 



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