There are many impacts to errors in waste segregation and the failure to adequately separate individual waste streams. These include additional costs in disposal, materials wastage, regulatory intervention and penalties etc.
But the more immediate and practical impact is one that creates and effective impasse, with general waste contractors refusing to remove general waste from a hospital since it is mixed with clinical, and the hospital, no doubt with the regulators, not wanting it to be managed as clinical for reasons of cost. This is what is happening in Port Elisabeth, South Africa, where mounds of mixed waste sit at the entrance to the mortuaries of two hospitals, with nobody wanting to deal with it!
http://www.weekendpost.co.za/article.aspx?id=631513