The Oklahoma company that worked with a number of area charitable organizations in a free electronics recycling program earlier this year violated at least seven hazardous waste management regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency, officials said.

The federal regulatory agency on Friday issued a complaint and compliance order against the Tulsa-based EarthEcycle LLC, which is owned and operated by Jeff Nixon, 44, a former Allegheny County employee.

The administrative order, which also calls for a hearing with EarthEcycle, states that the company's operations in Western Pennsylvania violated the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 and the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984.

The administrative charges against EarthEcycle include: failure to make a hazardous waste determination; failure to prepare a hazardous waste manifest; unauthorized export of hazardous waste; failure to provide notice to the regional [EPA] administrator of an intent to export cathode ray tubes for reuse; failure to package the electronics; failure to label; and failure to mark them.

"EPA takes proper and safe management of electronic waste seriously, which is why we have opened an investigation of EarthEcycle for violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act," said a statement issued through agency spokesman Dave Ryan yesterday.

Mr. Nixon was ordered "to achieve and maintain compliance with all applicable requirements of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act." He could not be reached for comment yesterday.

He has 30 days to schedule a hearing with an EPA legal adviser and provide a written answer to the charges. The hearing would be the basis for a settlement conference, which would then produce a consent agreement and final order between the parties.

The EPA announced last week that it was investigating EarthEcycle's practices after the Seattle-based environmental watchdog Basel Action Network released a report claiming that the company collects electronics and then exports them in a manner that makes them hazardous waste.

The environmental group, which has a stated mission of curbing the dumping of hazardous waste in places like China, India and parts of Africa, said that it tracked EarthEcycle containers as they left two Pittsburgh-area storage locations and headed to Newark, N.J., and then to Hong Kong and South Africa.

"We are thrilled to see the EPA follow through so quickly on our investigation. We were blowing hard on the whistle nobody wanted to hear," said Sarah Westervelt of the Basel Action Network.

According to the EPA order, its investigation into EarthEcycle might have also been sparked by Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department officials, who notified the agency on May 15 that they "had intercepted a shipment of three containers containing hazardous waste and had returned them to the original port of dispatch, Newark, N.J."

And on May 18, Hong Kong officials again notified the EPA that they had intercepted another shipment of four containers of hazardous waste that they had sent back to New Jersey. The order said both shipments were consigned to Multi-Trans Shipping Agency LTD in Hong Kong.

Now the EPA has ordered Mr. Nixon to "take possession of all of the containers that are returned to the United States and remove them from the Port of Newark," within 30 days. He also is supposed to transfer the containers to a secure warehouse for temporary storage under his control.

Within 45 days, Mr. Nixon must submit a plan for EPA approval detailing how he will manage each item in each container in accordance with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

The order further states that Mr. Nixon "shall not remove any items from the storage facility without EPA approval" and he "shall remove all items from storage within 20 days of EPA's approval" of his plan.

If Mr. Nixon fails to comply with the requirements of the order within the time specified, the "EPA may seek the imposition of penalties of up to $37,500 for each day of continued noncompliance, in addition to any other penalties that maybe assessed for past or ongoing violations."

Last year, the EPA filed a $32,500 complaint against Jet Ocean Technologies of Chino, Calif., for failing to notify the agency of a cathode ray tube export shipment the company had made in violation of federal hazardous waste laws.

Environmental activists say there is little federal regulation of the collection of electronics for recycling.

The EPA enacted new regulations in 2007 requiring exporters shipping cathode ray tubes to another country for recycling to notify the agency.

The company would also have to receive written consent from the receiving country before shipments of electronics could be made.

The EPA maintains two lists of companies that have notified the agency of that they collect and ship electronics overseas. EarthEcycle was not registered on either EPA list as of last Thursday.