How to Check a Waste Company’s Compliance

Start with the record, not the pitch

Search the company or facility name on US Waste Index's directory or facility search. If it's a hazardous-waste hauler or disposal operator, it should show up as an EPA-regulated facility with a compliance record attached — see our guide on what EPA ECHO is for where that data comes from.

If a company doesn't turn up a record at all, that by itself isn't damning — plenty of legitimate waste-service businesses (haulers of non-hazardous waste, brokers, recyclers of specific streams) fall outside RCRA's hazardous-waste permitting and won't have an EPA compliance profile. It just means this particular check doesn't apply, and you'll need other ways to vet them.

Check its handler role first

A facility's RCRA handler classification tells you what it's actually registered or permitted to do — and the two aren't the same thing. "Transporter" status is an EPA ID and registration to move hazardous waste under RCRA's transporter standards (40 CFR Part 263) — not a formal permit. A "TSDF" (Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facility), by contrast, requires an actual RCRA permit (or interim status) to treat, store, or dispose of hazardous waste — a harder bar to clear. A generator classification (LQG, SQG, VSQG) means the site itself produces hazardous waste, which is a different thing entirely — see our guide on the difference. A hauler that will physically take waste off your site should hold Transporter status or a TSDF permit, not just a generator classification.

A single company can hold more than one of these at once — a disposal operator is very often both a Transporter and a TSDF. That's normal, not a red flag.

Read the violation history — total vs. open

Next, look at the violation count and, more importantly, how many are still open. "Open" means EPA's record shows no resolved date as of the latest snapshot — it doesn't by itself mean an active lawsuit or an ongoing crisis, and a company with zero open violations can still have a real history of past ones. See our guide on what an open violation means for the full detail.

What matters most for a contract decision is usually the current state: are there open violations right now, and how many, not whether the company has ever had one. A clean current record with some resolved history in the past is a very different signal than several violations still open today.

Check the Significant Non-Complier flag and penalties

EPA's "Significant Non-Complier" (SNC) flag marks facilities with the most serious, ongoing compliance problems — it's a meaningfully higher bar than a routine open violation. See our guide on what SNC means for how it's determined. The 5-year penalty total and inspection count give additional context: a company inspected often with no penalties reads differently than one rarely inspected.

Confirm the snapshot date, then verify directly with EPA ECHO

Every compliance figure on US Waste Index carries the date of the EPA snapshot it came from — check that date before relying on it for a contract decision. Data refreshes periodically, not in real time. See our guide on how current this data is for the refresh cadence.

For anything time-sensitive or high-stakes, follow the facility's link to its full EPA ECHO detailed report and confirm directly against EPA's own live system before you sign. US Waste Index sources from ECHO but isn't a substitute for checking it yourself when it matters.

What this check can't tell you

A clean EPA compliance record says a company hasn't triggered federal hazardous-waste enforcement — it says nothing about price, service quality, insurance coverage, or whether it handles your specific waste stream. RCRA doesn't classify waste streams at that level of detail either, so Transporter status or a TSDF permit alone doesn't confirm the company handles what you're generating; confirm that directly with them.

US Waste Index never presents a facility as broadly approved or in good standing on the strength of this data alone — every claim here is sourced to a specific EPA record and a specific date. See our Editorial Policy for the full statement of what this site does and doesn't do.

A real example: checking Disposal Properties' record

Below is a real facility's compliance summary, sourced live from the same ECHO/RCRAInfo data described above. It holds both Transporter and TSDF permits — the kind of dual classification a company handling waste pickup and disposal often carries — with a handful of violations on record and zero currently open.

FAQ

Primary sources

This guide is reference material compiled by US Waste Index, not original regulatory guidance — verify anything time-sensitive or high-stakes directly against these primary sources.

• EPA ECHO (Enforcement and Compliance History Online)
• EPA RCRAInfo
• EPA ECHO Hazardous Waste Dashboard Help (SNC and violation status)