Report 2008-112 Recommendation 6 Responses

Report 2008-112: Electronic Waste: Some State Agencies Have Discarded Their Electronic Waste Improperly, While State and Local Oversight Is Limited (Release Date: November 2008)

Recommendation #6 To: General Services, Department of

To help state agencies' efforts to prevent their e-waste from entering landfills, Toxic Substances Control, the Waste Management Board, and General Services should work together to identify and implement methods that will communicate clearly to state agencies their responsibilities for handling and disposing of e-waste properly and that will inform the agencies about the resources available to assist them. This report identifies five specific approaches that the State could use to implement this recommendation. One approach is to have General Services, in consultation with Toxic Substances Control and the Waste Management Board, amend applicable sections of the State Administrative Manual to include e-waste among the items that state agencies are required to recycle.

1-Year Agency Response

The three oversight agencies included in our audit—General Services, Toxic Substances Control, and the Waste Management Board—stated that they have worked collaboratively to implement solutions for ensuring that e-waste from state agencies is managed legally and safely. General Services stated that the three entities emphasized the need for proper e-waste management to department directors and jointly provided training about recycling and e-waste disposal to approximately 200 state employees. Further, General Services stated that after receiving input from the other two entities, it amended the State Administrative Manual to clearly require state entities to dispose of irreparable and unusable e-waste using the services of an authorized recycler. (See 2010-406, p. 99)

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

All Recommendations in 2008-112

Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.