Chemical Waste Management Made Easy

Fines for flagrant hazardous waste violations caused some to believe that the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) might be “The Worst” hazardous waste generator in the State of Nevada.  An unannounced visit to the University by the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection (NDEP) occurred in 1995, producing a long list of citations for hazardous waste accumulation and storage, training and recordkeeping, waste reporting, and contingency plans. A Consent Decree and an independent environmental audit provided practical, innovative, and binding recommendations for improving noted deficiencies related to the hazardous waste practices and procedures at the University.

Fourteen years have past since the UNR’s chemical waste management program was forced into significant changes in the way it did business.  Changes in personnel, facilities, and equipment occurred within a year of the Notice of Violations and the program was back on track.  But what has happened since then? 

Technology has come a long way since those times and an innovative, web-based system for chemical waste container management has come right along with it.   The project, started in 1999, has undergone countless improvements to forward customer service, data tracking, and compliance assurance.  Requests for pick up are communicated to a dedicated database for tracking each waste container through the process of submission, verification, waste determination, collection, storage, packaging, and transportation for disposal.

This presentation takes a look at UNR, before and after changes fourteen years ago, and a real time look at what the UNR waste management system is capable of today.