Waste management plan are a vital tool for construction, renovation, or land-clearing projects that are designed to minimize the amount of waste generated by a project. These plans detail the waste types and quantities that are expected to be produced throughout a project as well as how these wastes will be handled, stored, and disposed of at the completion of the project. Typically, these plans are provided to contractors or subcontractors who will be responsible for implementing the plan.
A waste management plan must be updated and maintained regularly to ensure that the waste management system complies with local, state, and federal regulations. This includes documentation of the waste management system, training personnel on hazardous waste procedures, establishing contingency plans, and developing inspection programs. It also requires identifying all potential hazardous and non-hazardous wastes generated by the facility and documenting their storage, disposal, and transportation requirements. In addition to these requirements, a waste management plan must meet the specific needs of each facility.
The city’s current Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) is a 20-year strategy for how New York City handles the roughly 12,000 tons of waste that it processes each day. Its goals include equitably distributing sanitation infrastructure, minimizing environmental impacts, and keeping costs manageable.
One of the main changes outlined in the SWMP was to end the city’s use of short-term waste export contracts and replace them with long-term contracts. This was done in part to reduce the financial risk of these contracts as nearby landfills reached capacity and potentially decided to no longer accept New York City’s waste.
Another goal outlined in the SWMP was to increase recycling and diversion rates. The plan estimated that the city’s curbside and containerized recycling rate would grow from 17 percent in 2005 to 25 percent in 2007, 28 percent in 2015, and 35 percent by 2026. Unfortunately, the city’s recycling tonnage has fallen significantly in recent years, primarily due to unfavorable trends in the composition of the waste stream.
Each time a department generates waste chemicals, the chemical name and the quantity must be documented in the HW Tracking System. The information entered in this system is used to determine whether or not a chemical is considered hazardous waste and what method of disposal is required. Faculty and staff’s knowledge of the process generating the waste, material safety data sheets, and lab analyses are all helpful in making this determination.
When the chemical is ready for disposal, it must be sent to Housekeeping who will create a work order in the waste management system for the department or person that brought the chemicals to campus. The completed work order and original copies of the waste manifest should be kept with the HW manifest in the University’s files.
It is a best practice to utilize a manifest for all off-site shipments of regulated waste, used oil, bio-hazardous waste, and e-waste. It is not mandatory to have a waste vendor complete a LDR, but it is recommended that they do so. The original signed copy of the waste manifest, and copies of all documents that indicate the waste was successfully shipped to the TSDF should be retained with the manifest.
Leave a Reply