Most clinical waste will be placed into an orange sack, with some in yellow or perhaps a Tiger bag.

But surely not black?

Well, no, except in Arun District where the local authority says of clinical waste collections:

Clinical waste collections

“Medical dressings and incontinence waste are classed as clinical waste and should not be disposed of with the normal rubbish. We offer a free domestic collection service for these items. Please contact us on 01903 737754 to discuss your requirements and set up the service. The collections will be weekly, and you will be told your collection day upon booking. For the first week, you will be asked to put the waste into a black sack and label it clearly as clinical waste. You should leave it on the door step (or in the bin store for flats) by 07.00 on the correct day, when it will be collected and replaced with a new yellow bag. If the bag is not out when the collector arrives we will not return until the next week. If you will not need a collection for a few weeks, please contact us to tell us otherwise your collection may be cancelled. Please do not put needles in the yellow bag, if you have a need to dispose of sharps, please request a sharps collection.

Sharps collections

“Needles and other sharps should not be placed in with the normal rubbish or clinical waste. Instead, they should be contained in a special box. To set up a free domestic sharps box collection please contact us on 01903 737754 and we will arrange for one to be delivered to your property. Once this is nearly full, please contact us on the number above. Seal the box by pressing the access flaps into a fixed position and leave it on your doorstep before 07.00 on the specified day. If you are in a block of flats, it should be left in the bin store. The box will be collected and a replacement will be left.

http://www.arun.gov.uk/clinical-waste-sharps-collections

So for a new sharps collection, Arun can get out and deliver a sharps bin before the first collection, but not for soft wastes. That those soft clinical wastes will, under instruction from the Council, be placed in a black sack, seems to be a recipe for trouble.

And why is Arun District Council issuing yellow sacks at all? What happened to orange, or is all of the clinical waste in Arun of a higher risk category? I wonder if they would be so understanding if a resident mixed up their household refuse and recyclables?

But anyway, perhaps black is the new orange, or yellow, or whatever?