Cox Reaches $3.3M Settlement in Illegal E-waste Disposal Case

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): California-based Cox Communications California, LLC., belonging to Atlanta-based business conglomerate Cox Enterprises reached an agreement with state authorities to pay more than $3.3 million in settlement of charges of improper disposal of e-scrap. The settlemewnt was announced by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office and the California Attorney-General.

It was alleged that the company’s retail and warehouse locations disposed of hazardous items including batteries, electronic scrap and aerosol consoles in landfill garbage, in violation of state waste laws. In addition, the company was found to have breached customer security, by not properly destroying personal information from records.

As per the agreement, Cox will pay $2.1 million in civil penalties, $404,700 as payment to several agencies to pay for investigations and $814,000 towards reimbursement of costs incurred during the investigation. On top of that, the company has agreed to spend $665,000 on environmental projects and to provide $450,000 towards educating general public on proper disposal of consumer electronics.

By way of the agreement, Cox has also agreed to engage e-Stewards or R-certified firms to process e-scrap in future. It will conduct three internal audits to review recordkeeping procedures and pay for three external environmental compliance audits. Further, it has promised to ensure that such violations never occur in future.

Investigations by authorities had revealed that Cox regularly used to send hazardous waste to local landfills. The company also risked confidential personal information of customers by disposing of customer records without making them unreadable. During the time of investigation, Cox had operated as many as 25 facilities in California.