Innovation in New England

Regulatory Innovation

For more than a decade, EPA New England has been a leader in the development of innovative environmental protection strategies that involve regulatory change.  One ongoing effort is the New England University Laboratories Project which is testing a new model for managing hazardous wastes in academic laboratories.

New England University Laboratories Project
Federal and state hazardous waste regulations are targeted to industrial activities.  Thus, they may be more difficult to apply to academic teaching and research laboratories.  Unlike industrial settings, academic institutions generally use relatively small amounts of a wide variety of chemicals.  To address this issue, the New England University Laboratories XL Project was created to test the effectiveness of a new regulatory model addressing hazardous waste in academic laboratories (64 FR 52380-52396; 40 CFR Part 262, Subpart J.)  Results have proven successful enough to allow EPA's Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery to propose a federal rule tailored to management of hazardous waste in academic laboratories. Lab Waste at Educational Institutions » (EPA HQ)

The New England University Laboratories project developed and tested new and environmentally protective regulations addressing the specific nature of hazardous waste generation by academic laboratories.  The rule was fashioned so that colleges and universities have sufficient flexibility to determine the most appropriate and effective methods of compliance.  The model accomplishes this task through implementation of an integrated, performance-based and verifiable (auditable) laboratory environmental management plan (EMP) that includes many of the elements of an environmental management system (EMS) focused specifically on laboratory waste management. 

The rule requires each participant (the University of Massachusetts-Boston, Boston College, and the University of Vermont) to write and implement their own site-specific Laboratory EMP.  Each participant’s EMP sets out standards that they developed to ensure their laboratories conform to the new rule (in particular, to the Minimum Performance Criteria in the rule).     

Development of this system was influenced by the experiences of other agencies that have developed their own laboratory hazardous waste management protocols, particularly the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) Laboratory Standard.  These systems also include the National Institutes of Health for biohazards, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for radiation hazards.

The universities and the project sponsor, the Campus Consortium for Environmental Excellence (C2E2), identified two principal regulatory problem areas that are addressed by the XL regulation:

Hazardous Waste Determination [40 CFR 262.11]
The hazardous waste determination is deferred until the material generated by a lab is moved to a central accumulation area. Identifying a specific point for this formal determination provides trained environmental professionals an opportunity to determine potential reuse or recycling opportunities for laboratory wastes at the institutional level -- and at a central location. This provision increases the opportunities for reuse and recycling of laboratory waste.

Satellite Accumulation [40 CFR 262.34(c)]
The time period for satellite accumulation of hazardous waste is extended from 3 to 30 days to allow the environmental, health and safety professionals to collect and remove laboratory waste during planned, systemic and scheduled intervals. Extending the period during which waste can be temporarily held in a laboratory creates a more coordinated and efficient system to proactively manage waste.  Scheduled waste pick-ups allow time for staff to be trained in waste minimization, and time to develop infrastructure for a university-wide chemical reuse system.

Key environmental benefits of the project include:

• pollution prevention through planning
• annual surveys of laboratories that potentially store high hazard chemicals referred to as hazardous chemicals of concern (“HCOC”)
• defined procedures that control the decommissioning of laboratories (e.g., cleanouts) leading to removal of HCOC and other hazardous chemicals with attendant risk reduction
• defined procedures for the timely removal of laboratory wastes from the laboratory leading to reduced risk and increased opportunity for waste minimization
• increased reuse of laboratory waste and laboratory waste reduction
• increased compliance through auditing
• increased environmental awareness through training and surveys

For more information, Lab XL, Campus Consortium for Environmental Excellence