Clinical waste management in the clinical environment should be managed to an exemplary standard in order to maintain hygiene standards and eliminate the hazards associated with sharps and sharps injury. But is that always so good?

A flurry of comments on the PracticeNursing.co.uk web site suggests otherwise. Nurses who do not want to make the effort, and who might accept no responsibility for wastes but wish others – the cleaners – to manage it for them paint a miserable picture of unprofessionalism. That reflects badly on those individuals, and others, and is probably more reflective of common standards of waste management than we would normally care to admit.

With attitudes like this, it’s no wonder source segregation does not work.