Toxic Waste Handled (WS.5)

Description: Hazardous waste disposal and management at Maejo University.

Maejo University has generated a broad range of hazardous waste such as chemical contaminated waste, broken glasses, sharp items, chemical containers, spray bottles, electronics devices, batteries, and fluorescence light bulbs. To manage and dispose these items efficiently and to promote environmental-friendly waste management, many policies and several procedures have been conducted. The budgets for handling these hazardous wastes were set and trained staff were assigned for waste collection and control.

There are 10 household hazardous waste collection points located on Maejo campus where students and staff can get rid of all hazardous wastes such as light bulbs, broken glasses, spray bottles/cans, batteries, and other household hazardous wastes. In 2021, approximately 2 tons of household hazardous waste were collected and transported to handle by Maejo municipality for disposal at Wongpanit Recycle Company (a certified contract company). For chemicals contaminated waste, used chemicals and chemical containers from laboratories and research sections, trained lab-technicians who got a certificate of waste management are responsible for handling and setting the procedure of collection and storage of these waste before disposal. In the beginning, all waste will be checked and weighed, labeled, and recorded. Some types of waste are pretreated before storage. All the waste is placed and stored in a safe and isolated area before transferring to dispose by a certified contracted company each year. In the years 2017-2021, the amount of hazardous waste collected and sent for disposal by the recycle engineering company, a certified company, were 1775 kg, 1274 kg, 1826 kg, 2000 kg, and 3,549, respectively. All the items were listed and recorded in the link below:

https://erp.mju.ac.th/openFile.aspx?id=NDc2OTQz&method=inline

Since 2020, Maejo has signed a collaboration with AIS and ECOLIFE for the installation of E-waste bins on the campus. This aimed to collect all the used and broken electronics devices including mobile phones and accessories and IT items for disposal and management. In 2021, approximately 3 kg. of used mobile phones and batteries, 1.8 kg. of headphones and accessories, and 1 kg. of other electronics appliances were collected and sent by post to recycle at E-waste recycle company (under AIS contract).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the MJU waste management team has set up a mask waste collection bin (red bin) on the campus for staff and students to dispose their used masks. Each month, this disinfected waste was transferred to dispose at the School of Renewable Energy for electricity production using a hybrid incineration system developed by Assoc. Prof. Dr.Nattaporn Chaiyat. This system was also used for disposing infectious waste from MJU field hospital during the outbreak of Covid-19 at the beginning of the year 2021. The link for the information on the hybrid incineration system is shown below;

https://erp.mju.ac.th/openFile.aspx?id=NDc2OTYz&method=inline