A biohazardous waste is any biological waste potentially dangerous to human or animal health, such as:

• human blood and its components, in liquid or semi-liquid form, dry or not • human body fluids (including semen, vaginal secretions, cerebrospinal fluid, synovial fluid, pleural fluid, pericardial fluid, peritoneal fluid, amniotic fluid and saliva), in the form liquid or semi-liquid, dry or not

• human pathological waste: all tissues, organs and parts of the human body

• animal waste: all animal carcasses and body parts

• microbiological waste: laboratory by-products containing infectious agents (including discarded specimen cultures, discarded etiological agent stocks, live and attenuated viruses, waste from the production of biologicals and sera, disposable culture plates, and devices used to transfer, inoculate and mix cultures)

• Sharps waste: sharp medical utensils such as scalpels, needles, glass slides, lancets, glass pipettes, broken glass that have been contaminated with potentially infectious material.

To help laboratories and healthcare operators navigate through the stringent hazardous waste disposal legislation, the Department of Health has created the following classification:

offensive residue

They are non-clinical, non-infectious waste that does not contain pharmaceutical or chemical substances, but can be unpleasant for anyone who comes into contact with it.

You must separate offensive health care waste from both clinical and mixed municipal waste.

If you have produced more than 7 kg of municipal offensive by-products, or have more than one bag in a collection period, you must segregate it from any mixed municipal waste.

If you have produced less, you can dispose of your offending municipal waste in your mixed municipal waste (“black bag”).

Plaster and similar waste

Most gypsum byproducts are not infectious. It should be kept separate from any infectious plaster waste, which should be placed in the infectious clinical waste stream in bags.

drug residues

A drug is considered cytotoxic or cytostatic for classification purposes if it is any of the following:

• acutely toxic

• carcinogenic

• mutagenic

• toxic for reproduction

Sharps and Related By-Products

The safe management and disposal of sharps is vital to ensure that the risks associated with handling sharps are eliminated and to ensure compliance with the Hazardous Waste Regulations (Scottish Special Waste Regulations).

Disposal of sharps is determined by drug contamination. To ensure compliance with the Hazardous Waste Regulations, the correct separation and storage of sharps in color coded containers and special containers is essential.

• Orange Containers – For the storage and disposal of sharps that do not contain or be contaminated with medication, such as sharps used for blood sampling and acupuncture.

• Yellow containers: for the storage and disposal of sharp objects that are contaminated or that contain medicines or anesthetics

• Purple containers: for the disposal of sharp objects and medications with cytotoxic or cytostatic content or contamination.

• Blue containers-For the disposal of expired medications, used medication denaturation kits and discarded items for use in the management of pharmaceutical products such as bottles or boxes with waste, gloves, masks, connection tubes, syringe barrels and medicine vials Anatomical waste.

Anatomical waste from operating rooms requires special containment and must be stored, transported and disposed of as hazardous waste to ensure that it does not present risks to human health or the environment.

Anatomical debris includes:

• Body parts

• Organs

• Blood bags and blood preserves

Laboratory chemicals and photochemicals

Hazardous chemical waste: includes:

• Waste classified as ‘hazardous’ in the 2005 Hazardous Waste Regulation modified in 2016 (Annexes 1 and 2) or in the ‘List of Waste’ of the European Waste Catalog (EWC).

• Other wastes that exhibit one or more of the hazardous properties (HP1 to HP15) listed in the Regulations (see Environmental Agency Guide WM3).

Any medical supplies or other equipment (such as used gloves, towels, bandages and dressings, tubing) that have come into contact with hazardous materials and therefore show more than trace elements of these materials are also classified as hazardous waste.

The Environmental Protection Act includes a ‘Duty of Care’ which requires all persons involved in waste management, including producers, to take reasonable and appropriate steps to ensure that:

• Waste is only kept, treated, deposited or disposed of in accordance with a waste management license or other authorization;

• The waste does not escape the control of the possessor;

• Waste is only transferred to authorized persons, such as registered waste haulers or licensed disposal operations authorized to accept that type of waste;

• All transfers/movements of waste are accompanied by an adequate written description of the same that will allow them to be identified and subsequently managed correctly.

All Waste Matters provides specialist laboratory waste disposal services to a wide customer base across the UK, from commercial laboratories to schools, colleges and universities.

From our fully licensed waste management facility in Kent, we can offer a bespoke laboratory waste collection and disposal service for any unwanted chemicals and laboratory waste.

We collect with our own vehicles and our licensed laboratory waste disposal facility is regularly inspected by the Environment Agency.

This is essential to give our customers complete peace of mind and ensure laboratory waste is treated in accordance with and exceeding all recommended guidelines.