Equipment varies by specialty, and most facilities retire a mix of clinical devices and ordinary IT at the same time. Typical loads include:
- Patient monitors, lab analyzers and other diagnostic electronics
- Surgical consoles and the computers and camera systems that run scopes and robotic systems
- Dental, ophthalmic and medspa devices, including slit lamps, retinal cameras, laser systems and their worn handpieces and tips
- Workstations, servers, drives, phones and printers from medical IT
- Batteries from clinical and portable devices
Protected health information is not limited to workstations. Lab analyzers, surgical consoles, eye care cameras and multifunction printers often contain a computer with a drive. We list every data-bearing device at scoping, then wipe it to NIST 800-88 if it will be reused or shred it if your policy requires destruction. Each serial number appears on the certificate.
Monitors, analyzers and older electronics can contain lead, mercury and brominated flame retardants, so they cannot go in the trash. Clinical decontamination is a separate step from the recycling work. Note in your request which items it applies to.
You send an inventory with photos. We schedule around clinic hours, our technicians load the equipment under chain of custody, and you receive destruction certificates and a certificate of recycling. Jobs range from a single practice cleanout to phased projects and recurring service for clinic networks.
Recycling medical equipment starts with finding the patient data. Hospitals, clinics, surgery centers, dental and eye care practices and medspas send us diagnostic imaging and clinical electronics, lab analyzers, monitors, medical IT and device batteries. We identify drives and embedded storage when the job is scoped, wipe or destroy them by the method your privacy team approves, and close every load with destruction and recycling certificates for your audit file.
Simplify your compliance and disposal process with bundled recycling services that handle both electronic devices and batteries in one streamlined solution.
Our scheduled, route-based pickups cover all major regions of California—ensuring efficient, on-time service no matter where you operate.
We provide clearly labeled, tamper-resistant containers to ensure safe and compliant collection of electronic waste and batteries at your location.
Modern Waste Solutions has served businesses and communities across California with dependable, environmentally responsible recycling solutions for over two decades.
We adhere to all California and federal regulations, ensuring your electronic and battery waste is managed with complete transparency and environmental responsibility.
Reviews
A little bit off the beaten track in Natomas, but Modern Waste quickly and efficiently helped me recycle my broken Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries at a reasonable $/lb fee (Sac county e-waste will not accept these items). Ramiro and Vincent were very friendly and helpful.
Chris was awesome! He came in and picked up all of the e-waste we had ready for him. He was polite and professional throughout the entire process. He handled the equipment with care, including the site equipment that was already in place. I am very happy with his service and appreciate the great job he did.
Aaron and Vincent were awesome, excellent customer service!
Great guys, excellent customer service, highly recommend!
Polite, quick and easy.
Chris from modern waste was the most outstanding respectful person I ever met my life when he was done he offered to sweep the floors. He offered so much even though he was limited on time he went out of his way and he’s over beyond best guy I ever met thank you so much for your service services Dan ITG.
We have answers.
Workstations and servers are the obvious places. Patient information also sits on the computers built into lab analyzers and diagnostic systems, surgical console PCs, retinal cameras and other eye care devices, multifunction printers, phones, and old backup media left in a closet.
Our technicians recommend identifying every embedded drive before medical equipment leaves the site. A complete media inventory helps prevent patient information from being overlooked during deinstallation or recycling.
Once a drive is on the list, it gets a decision: wipe it if the device will be reused or returned, or destroy it. The serial number goes on the certificate either way.
The HIPAA Security Rule asks covered entities to have policies for the final disposal of electronic protected health information and the media that holds it. Your privacy team sets that policy. Our job is to carry it out and leave evidence that it happened.
- Data-bearing devices are identified when the job is scoped, before anything is loaded.
- The wipe or destruction method is agreed with your privacy team in advance.
- Our own technicians load and transport the equipment under a documented chain of custody.
- Each drive is recorded by serial number and listed on the certificate of destruction.
No vendor is "HIPAA certified", so be wary of anyone who says they are. Ask instead for the method, the records you will get, and a sample certificate. If your vendor-management process requires a signed agreement with disposal vendors, mention it in your quote request.
We run healthcare jobs through the same six steps we use for every customer, adjusted for clinical settings.
- Equipment: We supply containers sized for your mix, such as e-waste bins for medical IT and separate buckets for device batteries.
- Training: We show biomed, IT and facilities staff which items store patient data and which parts have to stay separate.
- Pick-up: Collection is scheduled around clinic hours, and our technicians do the loading.
- Tracking: Devices and drives are logged by serial number in our database.
- Processing: Media is wiped or shredded by the approved method, and equipment is triaged for reuse, dismantling or material recovery.
- Reports: You receive destruction certificates and a certificate of recycling for your audit file.
Send us what you know, even if the list is rough. The more of this we have up front, the fewer surprises on pickup day:
- Quantities, models and photos of the equipment.
- Which devices store patient data, and whether you want them wiped or destroyed.
- Any device that needs deinstallation, rigging or a utility disconnect.
- Which items still need clinical decontamination, which you should plan as its own step.
- Dock, elevator and hallway access, plus the hours when crews can work around patients.
- Who should receive the certificates.
Use the quote form or call (916) 339-3676 to talk it through.
The right method depends on where the device goes next and what your policy requires.
| Option | When healthcare teams use it |
|---|---|
| NIST 800-88 wiping | Workstations and devices going to reuse, redeployment or a lessor. Each drive is verified and reported by serial number. |
| Shredding at our Sacramento facility | Drives, SSDs, tapes and phones that policy says must be destroyed, collected under chain of custody. |
| On-site shredding | When your privacy officer wants to watch drives destroyed before they leave the building. |
Paper patient records can be shredded as part of the same job. Every option ends with a certificate of destruction you can file with your HIPAA documentation.
Recycling medical equipment means retiring clinical electronics, lab devices and medical IT so that patient data is destroyed, hazardous parts are handled correctly, and the rest is reused or recovered. It differs from ordinary office e-waste in a few ways.
- Many devices contain a computer or drive that stores protected health information.
- Monitors, analyzers and older electronics can contain lead, mercury and brominated flame retardants.
- Equipment used on patients may need clinical decontamination before it is released.
- Some units are heavy, fixed in place or tied into building utilities.
A plan that covers those points gives your compliance team a record showing where each device went.
The common problems are predictable:
- Replaced devices sit in storage rooms for months with patient data still on their drives.
- Equipment goes to a general scrap hauler or a reseller with no record of what happened to the data.
- Batteries from clinical devices end up in the trash instead of a battery recycling stream.
- An auditor asks for proof of destruction and nobody can produce it.
A documented pickup fixes each of these. Drives are logged before they move, batteries go into their own containers, and the certificates arrive with serial numbers attached.
Ask each vendor a few direct questions and compare the answers:
- How do you find embedded storage in clinical devices, and who decides whether it is wiped or shredded?
- Will the certificate list drives by serial number?
- Do your own employees handle the equipment, or is transport subcontracted?
- How are device batteries separated and recycled?
- Which management-system certifications do you hold, and are they current?
Modern Waste Solutions has recycled electronics and destroyed data from Sacramento since 1999. We hold ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 certifications and use our own drivers and technicians.
A few decisions made early keep a healthcare job on schedule:
- Which devices hold patient data, and whether policy requires wiping, off-site shredding or witnessed on-site shredding.
- Which equipment requires deinstallation, rigging, utility disconnection or special access planning.
- Who handles clinical decontamination and when, kept separate from the recycling work.
- How the removal date lines up with delivery of the replacement equipment.
- What the certificates must show and who receives them.
Share photos, quantities and deadlines with your request. We will tell you what is included, what needs separate approval, and what we still need to know.
We work with hospitals and health systems, clinics, surgery centers, imaging centers, dental and eye care practices, medspas, and medical laboratories. Medical IT teams also use us for workstation and server refreshes.
Size matters less than data. A single dental office retiring one server and a few workstations has the same patient-data obligations as a hospital replacing a floor of monitors. Jobs range from a one-time cleanout to phased projects and recurring service for clinic networks.
Pickups and on-site work are for businesses and institutions. We don't provide residential services; individuals with household electronics can use our sister company, Secure Recycle, at the same Sacramento address.