Georgia rules and good questions
Before you hire a cleanup company
The company you are put in touch with is independent, so it is worth a few minutes to check it.
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What Georgia requires
A trauma scene waste management practitioner has to register with the Georgia Secretary of State. The registration lasts three years. Georgia’s rules ask for liability insurance, a surety bond, and a state environmental permit to generate and transport the waste, or a contract with a permitted hauler (O.C.G.A. 43-46A-2; Rule 550-2-.01).
Athens-Clarke County and the towns around it cannot require a separate local license for this work, so the state registration is the one to ask about.
Questions to ask
- Are you registered with the Georgia Secretary of State? Can you send me the registration?
- Can I see your certificate of liability insurance?
- Who hauls the biohazardous waste away?
- Will I get a written estimate before you start, and an itemized bill at the end?
- How will you show me the area is clean?
- What happens to personal items you find?
When you are ready
One call, no pressure
You can call before you have decided anything. Ask what the work involves, how long it may take and what the company needs from you.
Talk it through first
Say what happened and where, and whether the police or the coroner have finished. The company will explain what it would do and what affects the cost. Nothing is agreed until you say yes.
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