Universal Waste

Certain types of dangerous waste can be handled under the simplified Universal Waste (UW) rules. UW management allows much easier waste management than regular dangerous waste requirements. To learn more about universal waste visit the Department of Ecology's "Manage Universal Waste" web page. Here in Washington state, three categories of waste can be managed as UW:

• Batteries (See Manage Batteries as Universal Waste.)
• Lights and Lamps, including any light bulb or tube that designates as dangerous waste. This includes but is not restricted to fluorescent lamps, high-intensity discharge lamps, and neon tubes.
• Mercury-containing thermostats
• Other mercury-containing equipment (devices or parts of devices that contain elemental mercury, such as relay and tilt switches, thermometers and barometers).