Importance of clinical waste disposal

Last December saw a 40% rise in clinical waste output from the Trust – rising to over 7,000kg!

On investigation, it became clear that domestic waste and other non-hazardous items were being put into the clinical waste bins.

Please remember that normal day to day waste such as ‘domestic’ and ‘household’ or waste categorised as ‘no risk’ should not be put in the clinical waste bins. This should go in the domestic waste bins.

Bags and sharp boxes should be no fuller than 75%, tied, sealed and labelled correctly.

Single use mops:

• Infectious - if the mop has been used to clean heavily contaminated areas, i.e. areas that have bodily fluids, then the mop head must be treated as clinical waste and disposed of in the yellow bag infectious waste stream.

• Offensive - if the single use mops have been used to clean floor areas i.e. kitchen, corridors or vehicle floors, they can be disposed of by way of the general waste stream (black bag).

For further information, please see the waste management policy on East24.

Published 17th February, 2016