This credit recognizes institutions that seek to minimize and safely dispose of all hazardous, universal, and non- regulated chemical waste and that have electronic waste (“e-waste”) recycling and/or reuse programs. Hazardous waste typically contains toxic components such as lead and mercury that can contaminate soil and groundwater and have detrimental human health impacts if handled improperly. At the same time, e-waste contains components that can be recycled. Likewise, computers, cellular phones, and other electronic materials can be donated or re-sold at reduced cost to non-profit organizations and community groups. Given the environmental and workplace health hazards that arise from hazardous waste disposal and e-waste recycling, this credit is reserved for programs that take steps to ensure that workers’ basic safety is protected and environmental standards are met.
Part 1
Institution has strategies in place to safely dispose of all hazardous, special (e.g., coal ash), universal, and non- regulated chemical waste and seeks to minimize the presence of these materials on campus.
Part 2
Institution has a program in place to recycle, reuse, and/or refurbish electronic waste generated by the institution and/or its students. Institution ensures that the electronic waste is recycled responsibly by using a recycler certified under the e-Stewards® and/or Responsible Recycling (R2) standards.
This metric is looking for whether the institution has or participates in a program to responsibly recycle, reuse, and/or refurbish all electronic waste generated by the institution:
For WikiRate researchers:
Institutions who report to the STARS program are listed on the STARS Participants & Reports website.
Use the institution Index, CTRL F, or Command F to search for the institution you want to research
By clicking on the hyperlinked name of the institution, you will be redirected to the page where all their STARS reports are listed. You can select either the most recent report, or one of the older reports to start tracking their performance over time.
NB: While the values in the reports might apply to different points in time (performance year, baseline year, most recent, etc.), the submission date of the report should be listed as the “year” on WikiRate. This is to ensure that reports of the same submission year can be compared. Any time specific information for the individual values should be included in the comment to that specific metric value.
To narrow down your search, navigate the reports’ index using the Reporting Category - Operations - and Credit Category - Waste - to finally select the Credit Title: Hazardous Waste Management.
You should now be on the report page that discloses whether the institution has or participates in a program to responsibly recycle, reuse, and/or refurbish all electronic waste generated by the institution. To locate the exact value you can search the page using CTRL F or Command F with keywords like waste, hazardous waste management, and electronics recycling.
Always check the metric question and methodology for the unit of measure or currency - researchers may need to carry out calculations or conversions before entering the final metric value
Add comments to include details of simple or complex calculations or conversions made to determine the metric value and document any relevant contextual information, like:
a brief description of the electronic waste recycling program(s)
a brief description of steps taken to ensure that e-waste is recycled responsibly, workers’ basic safety is protected, and environmental standards are met
the website URL where information about the institution’s electronic-waste recycling programs is available
Further guidance on how to research values is available here, including detailed guidance on adding, editing and checking metric values.
STARS compliance guidance for institutions:
Timeframe
Institutions should report on current programs at the time of submission.