A comprehensive hazardous waste management program in a Chemistry School at a Mexican university

Abstract

Numerous materials and products used on university campuses, especially in chemistry schools, have the latent possibility to become hazardous waste. As described in this work, the Facultad de Ciencias Quimicas of the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon initiated a hazardous waste classification program in 1994. Later, in 2003, a new comprehensive program for hazardous waste management emerged to provide a systematic program of collection and classification of hazardous waste generated in laboratories, for the purpose of confining and reducing the amount of hazardous waste produced by the Facultad de Ciencias Quimicas. This paper presents the scope of this program and describes how the comprehensive program for hazardous waste has impacted the Chemistry School and the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon community in the period from 2009 to 2013. The classification of hazardous waste by type has been useful and was quickly adopted by the student community as well as academic and non-academic staff. The largest quantities of generated hazardous waste consisted of liquid acid waste and toxic inorganic materials with corrosive characteristics. The largest quantities of generated solid hazardous waste were pieces of glass impregnated with toxic hazardous substances. Additionally, the comprehensive program for hazardous waste contributed to the acknowledgement of the Facultad de Ciencias Quimicas by the Mexican Government with a Certificate of Environmental Quality, making it the first educational organization in Mexico to be given this distinction. However, the most important result of the comprehensive program for hazardous waste management is the legacy of environmental care imparted to the student community. The scientific value added in this paper is the development of a new classification of hazardous waste, which can be useful in chemistry schools in any university. Finally, this work acknowledges the challenge for universities and organizations to act, develop sustainability, and change the paradigms and assumptions on which these organizations are currently based.