How to dispose of clinical waste

Clinical waste is one of the few wastes that can carry an infection or a toxic drug, so the rules are strict and the disposal is expensive. Get the sorting or the paperwork wrong and you either break the law or pay to burn waste that did not need it. Here is how to dispose of clinical waste the right way, and who is allowed to take it.

Not all clinical waste is hazardous

The first job is sorting it. Clinical waste splits into hazardous waste, which needs a consignment note, and non-hazardous offensive waste, which does not. Getting that split right is the whole game, because the two go to different places, on different paperwork, at very different cost.

The clinical waste that needs a consignment note

These streams are hazardous by default. They sit in chapter 18 of the waste list, each marked with a star:

• Infectious waste, 18 01 03*. Anything that could spread an infection, including contaminated sharps and soiled dressings.
• Hazardous chemicals, 18 01 06*.
• Cytotoxic and cytostatic medicines, 18 01 08*, the drugs used in chemotherapy and the like.
• Dental amalgam, 18 01 10*.

The waste that travels on a transfer note instead

Offensive waste, 18 01 04, is the non-infectious side, things like used gloves, aprons and pads from people with no known infection. It is unpleasant but not dangerous, so it travels on an ordinary waste transfer note, not a consignment note, and costs far less to handle. Tipping it into the hazardous stream by mistake is money straight down the drain.

Who can take clinical waste away?

Hazardous clinical waste can only be moved by a registered waste carrier, and it can only go to a site permitted to treat it. Infectious waste is either sterilised by alternative treatment or incinerated. Cytotoxic and cytostatic medicines must go to high-temperature incineration. A normal waste site cannot legally take any of it.

The consignment note

Every collection of hazardous clinical waste must travel with a hazardous waste consignment note, listing the right codes for what is in the load. On a clinical round that can mean a separate note for each producer you collect from. Our guide on how to fill out a consignment note covers it box by box.

If you collect clinical waste from a round of surgeries, care homes and dental practices, our consignment note software for clinical and healthcare waste is built for exactly that, a note for each producer, signed on the round.

This is one of our guides on how to dispose of hazardous waste.