University Laboratory Waste Management: The Best of Intentions...
Amorette Getty, Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara
Laboratory materials create extra challenges when institutions aim to achieve high diversion rates from landfill-bound waste. At the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), the campus committed to the waste diversion goals of 50 percent by 2008 (64 percent presently achieved), 75 percent by June 2012, and "Zero Waste" by 2020. The 2012 and 2020 goals cannot be reached without incorporation of new practices designed to address laboratory waste streams.
UCSB's Laboratory Resources, Advocates, and Teamwork for Sustainability (LabRATS) Program has endeavored to remain at the forefront of addressing laboratory sustainability issues, including waste stream management, since its inception in 2006. However, even aggressive sustainability programs can run into unforeseen challenges.
Changes to waste-hauling systems, including line-sorting of all materials collected from campus landfill bins for recyclables, allowed UCSB to achieve record diversion rates in pursuit of the above-stated goals. Processing through a dirty materials recovery facility (MRF) increased diversion by 30 percent. However, problems with sharps, chemical bottles containing residues, and autoclaved waste bags on the sorting line created concerns for waste hauler employees, which echoed challenges that university custodial staff had previously encountered. To address this challenge, all laboratory buildings were taken out of the sorted waste collection and laboratory waste was trucked directly to the landfill, unbeknownst to campus sustainability staff.
This problem having come to light, campus laboratory advocates are taking steps to collaboratively find solutions in concert with health and safety staff, laboratory and building managers, custodial staff, and the local waste hauler. In addition to putting most safe laboratory waste back into the sorting line for recyclables collection, the new laboratory waste management program corrects ongoing challenges custodial staff have faced, and has permitted enhanced outreach to a wider fraction of laboratory occupants for related research sustainability efforts.
In this talk, Dr. Getty will present tools that UCSB LabRATS have developed to assess laboratory waste streams, including a student-involved waste audit process and research into disposal and reuse opportunities for specific laboratory materials. She will discuss the challenges arising from the campus-wide conversion to a dirty MRF sorting process, and the results and synergetic outcomes of the new laboratory waste collection program.
Amorette Getty is the director of the Materials Research Facilities Network (MRFN) within the Materials Research Labs at UCSB. Dr. Getty's work focuses in improving research efficiency in a broad sense, connecting geographically disparate researchers with appropriate laboratory resources, ensuring the smooth operation of high-tech facilities, and connecting researcher behavior and laboratory equipment choices to building operations for a more sustainable research environment. Dr. Getty is co-director of UCSB's LabRATS, a program which administers a wide range of campuswide laboratory sustainability projects while providing educational opportunities to undergraduate interns. Dr. Getty received her Ph.D. in materials science at UCSB. Her graduate research focused on improving the efficiency of light-emitting diodes for solid state lighting and related applications.