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Batteries have traditionally contained large amounts of mercury
and other heavy metals, which pose numerous threats to the environment.
If landfilled, these metals could leach into ground water reserves
and possibly contaminate surface waters and their living inhabitants.
Since 1984, an ongoing effort has been made to reduce mercury content
in alkaline batteries. As of now there is a 97 percent reduction
and some newer alkaline batteries may have only one-tenth of original
levels.
Due to the reductions made in recent years, most waste facilities,
including New Hanover County, now accept alkaline batteries in landfills.
Alkaline batteries include non-rechargeable types like AA, C, and
D that are commonly used in radios and flashlights. Alkaline batteries
may be placed in a plastic bag and disposed of as regular trash.
All other batteries are deferred to local recycling centers because
they still contain high levels of heavy metals and acids that have
detrimental impacts on the environment.
The Environmental Health and Safety Department manages battery recycling
on campus and will accept small non-alkaline batteries. This includes
rechargeable batteries, camera batteries and batteries used in lab
equipment. For convenience, there are collection boxes located in
the University Union, Trask Coliseum next to the snack bar, the
Telecommunications office, the Center for Marine Sciences Room 1126,
Bear, Dobo and Friday halls.
New
Hanover County recycling program also has collection locations around
the area. Visit their Web
site for listings.
For further information on battery recycling, contact Deb Tew at
ext. 3057.
The Light
Recycling Program was implemented to meet the universal waste regulations
issued under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) in
40CFR Part 273. The Agency has concluded that regulating spent hazardous
waste lamps as a universal waste will lead to better management
of these lamps and will facilitate compliance with hazardous waste
requirements.
The Environmental
Health & Safety (EH&S) Department manages the light recycling
program at UNCW. All lights used at UNCW, except incandescent lights,
are included in this program. The lights are considered hazardous
due to the mercury content and can no longer be disposed of in the
landfills. The lights managed under this program are specifically
mercury-containing lamps to include:
- Fluorescent Lamps
- Compact Fluorescent Lamps
- Mercury Vapor Bulbs
- Metal Halide Lamps
- High Pressure Sodium
The lights will be sent to a recycling vendor with selection
based on environmental compliance with industry standards and insurance
levels. The light recycling technology separates mercury-containing
lamps into their main components, recovers the mercury, and recycles
100 percent of the end product. They accept all the mercury-containing
lamps generated at UNCW.
- Physical Plant, Auxiliary Services, and Housing
and Residence Life maintenance personnel are responsible for changing
out the lights and, therefore, they will have the responsibility
for the management of the program. The maintenance personnel in
these departments will store the used lights in the original cardboard
containers in their designated storage areas.
- "Universal Waste" labels are placed on these boxes
by the generating department. The labels identify the generating
department and the date. EH&S provides the labels to the departments.
- Physical Plant is the largest generator and they
determine the pick-up schedule based on their storage capabilities.
Physical Plant personnel will notify EH&S when their storage
area is nearing capacity.
- EH&S schedules a pick-up from the recycler
at this time. Two weeks lead time is required.
- All used lights must be transferred to the warehouse
receiving dock prior to pick-up.
- After the pick-up, EH&S will bill each department
for their portion of the recycling costs.
If university
employees change their own lights, they must contact their maintenance
personnel or EH&S for assistance in sending the lights to the
recycling storage area.
EH&S endorses this recycling
program and feels that it supports the environmentally conscious
mission of the university.
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