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How to Choose a Hazardous Waste or Used Oil Contractor - A Help Guide

About this help guide and checklist builder

The purpose of this guide is to help you balance three criteria for selecting a contractor:

Cost/services

Costs and services is the criteria most businesses use to hire a contractor.

Compliance

In the hazardous waste world, compliance with laws and regulations is as important as costs and services because failure to follow the rules can cost your business in penalties and other hidden costs. If your contractor fails to manage your waste safely and legally, it could also end up costing you, their client, by having the responsibility for clean up fall on you.

Liability

Liability is often overlooked because businesses do not know that hazardous waste law holds the generator responsible for what happens to waste. Financial assurance is the term used to describe how companies provide a safety net for you, the customer.

 

This guide offers the following:

• Basic information to help you select a contractor, with links to more information on specific topics.
• A simple checklist you can use to help you gather information about potential contractors.
• A comparison table to help you compare and “rate” contractors.
• Help with balancing cost/service, compliance, and liability.

Additional information regarding a facility's compliance history can be found at http://www.epa.gov/echo/compliance_report_rcra.html

Additional information about services in King County are found at http://www.govlink.org/hazwaste/business/wastedirectory/choose.html