Policy on electronic equipment decommissioning and re-purposing

Hello,

I am writing a policy on equipment decommissioning and re-purposing and
I would like some help on:

1. best practices from data security perspective (use of erasure tools
for different platforms esp. CISCO, different firewalls (devices), etc.)

2. legal considerations (i.e., environmental laws regarding disposal of
electronic equipment, etc. others that I may not have thought about) in
the US and in Europe (UK and Germany)

Pointers to good sample policies is also appreciated.

Thanks!