Hazardous waste service providers

Your waste service provider’s compliance record is as important as costs and services. If they fail to manage your waste safely and legally, you could end up paying for an expensive and embarrassing cleanup.

Look up a waste service provider's compliance history

The EPA's Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) allows you to see a provider's past history:

• Search by location: Enter the city or zip code of the facility, then scroll through the list or click the map.
• Search by facility name: Click the "Explore Facilities" button. Enter the facility’s name in the search bar.

Violations

Violations that threaten, or have potential to threaten, human health or the environment are serious.

Examples include:

• Unreported spills.
• Drums or containers without secure lids.
• Incorrect waste identification.

Citations

Do they have citations for:

• Poor waste tracking?
• Failing to keep records for waste shipments?

Citations for poor or missing records could impact your compliance as a generator if it calls into question what happened to a hazardous waste shipment.

Classification

Are they classified in ECHO as a:

• Significant non-complier?
• High priority violator?

These types of classifications could indicate the waste service provider has frequently failed to stay in compliance and could be a potential risk to your business.

Financial assurance (also known as financial responsibility) means the waste service provider ensures there is enough money available to cover cleanup costs should the need arise.

• If a waste service provider is cheaper overall, it could be because the amount of financial assurance they offer is low.
• Waste service providers that operate permitted dangerous waste facilities are often more expensive because they offer a high amount of financial assurance. 

Remember, if a waste service provider mishandles your waste, you are still responsible for any cleanup costs. Using a waste service provider that offers enough financial assurance can save you peace of mind in the long run.

Permits help mitigate, control, and prevent hazards to human health and the environment. Not all waste service providers have (or require) dangerous waste permits because not all of them operate a dangerous waste facility in Washington.

A permitted dangerous waste facility is a physical site in Washington that is allowed to treat other businesses' dangerous waste or store dangerous waste on a long-term basis.

While all waste service providers must adhere to all state and federal laws that apply to them, only those operating a dangerous waste facility are required to have a dangerous waste permit issued by the Department of Ecology.

If a waste service provider does not have a dangerous waste permit, ensure you research them well.

Only small quantity generators may transport their own dangerous waste.

If you need a lab to test your waste:

• Learn how to choose an analytical lab.
• Use our database to find an accredited lab.

Generators qualify for recycling credits if they:

• Generate 2,640 pounds or more of recurrent waste.
• Send all or part of their waste off-site to a waste service provider for recycling.

Generators need to request documentation from their hazardous waste service provider that:

• Identifies the waste stream recycled (by waste description and waste form).
• Lists a qualifying management method code.
• Lists the percentage recycled during the reporting year.
• Has a signature from an authorized representative of the waste service provider with the date the documentation was provided to you.

Recycling credits are entered in Section B3 of the Generation and Management (GM) Form of the Dangerous Waste Annual Report.

Waste service providers take dangerous waste to a permitted dangerous waste facility.

Uniform hazardous waste manifests provide a record of your waste shipments and proof that your dangerous waste reached its designated facility. The designated facility must send you a signed copy of your manifest (in Item 20 of the form) documenting they received the waste.  

If you don’t get the final signed copy of your manifest within the timeframes listed below, take these steps: 

• Within 45 days: Contact your transporter or designated facility for the status of the dangerous waste shipment.
• Within 60 days: Submit an exception report to Ecology. 

Track your dangerous waste shipments to ensure you receive all signed copies of your manifests within the required deadlines. Keep all your manifests on-site for at least five years from the date the initial transporter accepted the waste. 

What’s an exception report?

If a signed manifest is not received, medium and large quantity generators must submit the following documents (which make up your exception report):

• A copy of the manifest (sometimes called the transporter copy). 
• A cover letter explaining the efforts you made to determine what happened to your shipment and the results of those efforts. 

Where to send exception reports 

Submit exception reports via mail or email to your:

• Last compliance inspector,
  OR
• Regional office (Attention: HWTR).

After December 1, 2025:

• Facilities must submit electronic exception, discrepancy, and unmanifested waste reports to the e-Manifest module in RCRAInfo.
• We will no longer accept mailed paper or e-mailed exception, discrepancy, and unmanifested waste reports.
• Medium and large quantity generators will NOT BE REQUIRED to submit handwritten signatures as noted in Generator reporting (WAC 173-303-220(2)(a),(b), and (e)).

These changes are due to the Federal e-Manifest Third Rule. Ecology and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) currently require different timeframes for the initial search for an unsubmitted manifest and for manifest exception and discrepancy reports. Because of this, we issued the Interim Compliance Assistance Policy for Manifest Exception and Discrepancy Reports which aligns our state requirements with federal requirements.