Certain types of waste generated at McGill are considered hazardous due to their potential threat to human and environmental health. A member unit of Campus Public Safety, Hazardous Waste Management (HWM) supports sustainable and responsible hazardous waste management practices at the University by providing advice and hazardous waste disposal services to the McGill community.
The team of highly-trained technicians transport and manage the various hazardous waste streams that the University produces. For example, in the past five years, they have handled on average 51,442 kg of biological waste, equivalent to the weight of approximately 27 male giraffes, and 45,780 liters of chemical waste, equivalent to the volume of approximately 65 hot tubs, per year. On top of that, they take care of about 43,000 kg of e-waste and 18,500 kg of scrap metal per year.
Besides their regular work, the team has someone on call 24/7 to be able to respond to any inquiries or accidents that may happen. Incoming calls vary from smaller inquiries that can be handled remotely to bigger incidents that involve the team being on campus in person to deal with the situation and coordinate with potential first responders.
Find more information on their recently-revamped website: /hwm/ (now also available in French).
Christian Bouchard
Manager
Joined McGill in 2001
Christian started working as a technician for what used to be the Waste Management Program. “In 2008, I was promoted to manager and changed the name of the department to Hazardous Waste Management to better reflect the mission of the department and the expertise of my team, which is made up of highly-trained technicians.” Christian is responsible for the management of the unit, which includes establishing and ensuring compliance with all policies and procedures related to the sound management of chemical, biomedical, radioactive, and electronic waste on campus. “I also work with municipal, provincial and federal regulators to ensure that McGill is in full compliance with their respective acts and regulations related to the transport and disposal of dangerous goods,” he adds.
Fun fact(s): Christian has been playing curling for 35 years, including 30 competitively. “I went to the national championship (the Brier) in 2011 as part of the team representing Quebec .”
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Kim Bray
Administrative Coordinator
Joined HWM in April 1989
Kim has worked at McGill since a young age: “My time at McGill began with a part-time office job while still attending high school, followed by various casual positions, mostly in the Faculty of Medicine.” Not long after its creation in 1989, Kim joined the HWM team. She is responsible for all aspects regarding the day-to-day administration of the department. Her duties include a wide range of tasks including providing support to colleagues, processing requests, procurement, all types of financial transactions and customer service. “In a nutshell: ‘Jack of all trades – master of none’,” she says.
Fun Fact(s): “I have always enjoyed gardening, more so flowers than vegetables. For the past several years, I have slowly transformed my yard from a sandy weed-infested space into a lush perennial.”
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Fred Osman
Chief Waste Disposal Technician
Joined McGill in September 2000, HWM from 2001 to 2016, Facilities Call Centre from 2016 to 2021, and HWM again since October 2021.
From May 2001 until December 2016, Fred worked at HWM as Waste Disposal Assistant (WDA). After a couple of years at the Facilities Call Centre, he returned to HWM in October 2021 as Chief Waste Disposal Technician. “It’s a remarkably interesting job,” says Fred, “My responsibilities are to assign workload to our HWM WDAs, and maintain equipment and departmental vehicles.” He also shares the on-call responsibility for emergencies, is a member of the spill response team and attends hazmat emergency response training.
Fun fact(s): “I love flying planes and traveling with my family,” says Fred. He occasionally fills in for pilots on short flights for a small local airline. When he retires from McGill, he would like to fly two or three days a week to keep active.
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Eamon Conlon
Waste Disposal Assistant
Joined McGill in June 2022
Eamon is responsible for collecting all waste chemicals from both the downtown campus and the Macdonald campus. He also collects expired lightbulbs, fluorescent tubes and every type of battery there is on campus.
Fun fact(s): “I have been a club DJ in the past and have amassed a vinyl record collection of around 10,000 over the years. Maybe one day I will be able to import it from its home in London (United Kingdom).”
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Paul Getty
Waste Disposal Assistant
Joined McGill in November 2019
“Being a Waste Disposal Assistant is a very interesting job. My responsibilities are to collect all biological waste, process it at the end of the week and ship it out,” explains Paul. He also collects electronic waste and scrap metal on McGill’s campuses. 
This is brought back to the HWM facility where it is separated and shipped out at the end of the week.
Fun fact(s): “One of my favourite pastimes is fishing. I usually go to my summer cottage every weekend with my family and most Saturday mornings I go fishing.”
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Margaret Gordon
Hazardous Material Administrator
Worked at McGill from 2011 – 2017 and joined HWM in January 2023.
Margaret worked at the University while she was studying in the Chemistry department and throughout 2017 she worked at McGill's Comparative Medicine and Animal Resources Centre. At HWM, most of her time is spent managing chemical waste, from assessing what can be picked up and safely packed together to consolidating liquid waste into big bulk containers. “I also answer questions about hazardous waste from across the community, assist with the myLab update (to streamline our work from several systems and spreadsheets to one place), update standard operating procedures, and process radioactive waste,” she adds.
Fun fact(s): “I still have my sourdough starter (The Yeasty Boys) alive and well from early 2020.” She regularly uses it to make pancakes or waffles on the weekends.