Get to Know More about Hazardous Waste on Campus
The University of Houston Department of Public Safety has a team
of three individuals within the Environmental Health and Safety
Department that complete hazardous waste pickups on campus. They
will pick up anywhere on campus that is requested. The team’s
main pickups are from the science laboratories, but on occasion
they pick up hazardous waste from the Rec Center, Health Center,
Architecture, Fine Arts, Energy Research Park, The Medical
Center, and Plant Ops just to name a few.
Three types of hazardous wastes collected on campus are
chemical, biological, and radiological/radioactive waste.
Batteries, power supplies, gas cylinders, or canisters are also
collected on campus. Chemical waste is probably the most diverse
group to pick up as there are a wide range of chemicals
from the laboratories on campus. The chemicals include corrosive
materials such as acids or bases, flammable materials such as
benzene, xylenes, ethers, alcohols, and heavy metals such as
The biological hazardous waste that the team picks up includes
used pipette tips, agar plates, and biologically contaminated
personal protective equipment or supplies (ex. Paper towels).
They also pick up used needles and sharps (these should always
be placed in a proper sharps container). One of the more
“interesting” biological pickups are fruit flies. A number of
labs in SRII use fruit flies for their research. And believe it
or not, the team also picks up specimen body parts which, as you
can imagine, is the least favorite item to pick up by the team.
Once picked up, the team takes all of the chemical and
biological waste back to their Hazardous Waste facility for
processing. The biological waste is properly boxed (if not
already during pick up), stored, and labeled until the vendor
comes to pick it up (about every two weeks). We attempt to
properly classify and sort the chemical wastes and prepare for
pick by another vendor as well.
Finally there are the radioactive materials. These pickups
compromise the least of the total pickups, but are the most
“delicate” as there is a lot of paper work and tracking to
complete due to the sensitive nature of this waste. The team
works closely with the Radiological Safety Group when dealing
with these pickups. For the radiological pickups, the team is
mostly just transporters. The Radiation Group takes care of most
of the disposal for these materials through a vendor.
That’s a quick rundown of our hazardous waste collection here at
University of Houston. While research is being done, someone
behind the scenes is making sure the chemical, biological and
radioactive waste is properly disposed.