When batteries, electronics, and other potentially hazardous wastes are improperly disposed, they can harm public health and the environment.
Contact Resource Venture at (206) 343-8505 or help@resourceventure.org for free technical assistance with your management efforts, and contact your own waste hauler to learn more about the services that they provide. Also consider joining the EPA’s free WasteWise program, which provides members with several benefits, including a technical assistance team that will help your team to conduct a waste audit and reduce waste. For a database of Seattle area recycling markets, visit Resource Venture's "Find a Recycler" website.
For listings of hazardous waste service providers near Seattle, visit Earth 911’s Business Resources directory and the Environmental Yellow Pages.
You may also want to consider incorporating language into future contracts with suppliers of electronics equipment, specifying that they take back these hard to dispose of products at the end of their use for recycling and environmentally responsible disposal.
Sample electronics take-back contract languageBatteries and electronic waste (e-waste) constitute one of the most important portions of an office waste stream to manage safely. Batteries and e-waste – such as computers, printers, and cell phones – contain toxic heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and cadmium. When they are thrown away in the trash, they end up in landfills, and these toxic compounds can drain into soils and waters, polluting lakes and streams and making the water unfit for drinking, swimming, fishing, and wildlife.
OSHA – Hazardous Waste