The Chinese approach to recycling?
The Chinese market for clinical waste management is massive but remains largely unexploited due to the problems associate with breaking into the Eastern market, of attitudes to safe disposal that […]
Blenkharn Environmental
PPE for waste handlers
PPE for waste handlers is a somewhat thorny subject – many do not wear it, even when it is provided while others, many others, assume that a corporate sweatshirt or […]
Pharma waste drop boxes
The simplest ideas are often the best. To manage the safe and environmentally sound disposal of community pharmaceutical wastes, several Oklahoma counties have installed pharma drop boxes at popular locations, […]
Infection risk from hospital wastewater
Having previously worked with the risk of cholera and other serious infection risks from contaminated hospital watsewaters in regions where the climatic and geological conditions allowed pathogens from waste to […]
Innovative RFID use
RFID devices are not widely used in the UK clinical waste sector. Their potential is considerable, to identify and track individual waste containers, and provide a data framework for billing […]
Birmingham clinical waste collection problems
Clinical waste collection problems sometimes run in a manner that is less than satisfactory, and services operated by Birmingham City Council are obviously no exception. Last updated: Thursday, October 11, 2018
Pharmaceutical discharges from ATT treatment wastewaters
The possibility of unacceptable pharmaceutical discharges from ATT treatment wastewaters has repeatedly been used as an unacceptable ‘tool’ by EA to maniplulate their regulatory position. Last updated: Tuesday, June 3, 2014
US National prescription drug take-back day
On many previous occasions, the Clinical Waste Discussion Forum has reported occasional take-back schemes for unwanted prescription drugs operating across local or regional communities. These prove very successful, as cheap […]
High prevalence of HIV, Hep B, Hep C in IV drug users
Today’s BMJ carries a short report of the World Drug Report, launched at the UN headquarters in New York where the UN’s secretary general Ban Ki-moon, said that illicit drugs cause some […]
How and where to store waste carts?
As if to prove the point made not more than an hour ago, about the inadequacy of waste storage arrangements in care and nursing homes, a news report from North […]
Take care with gloves
Correct glove use and associated hand hygiene are undoubtedly primary health and safety issues for all of those working right across the waste industries, and for those handling clinical and […]
Hand hygiene for waste handlers
Blenkharn Environmental and the Clinical Waste Discussion Forum have long recognised the importance of hand hygiene for waste handlers, and the current deficiencies in hand hygiene performance. Last updated: Friday, […]
Sharps-related infections
We have previously discussed the wide diversity of infections that can be transmitted by sharps or needlestick injury. Last updated: Sunday, October 13, 2019
UCL restructures waste classification
It is reported that UCL, in conjunction with its partner Mitie, has restructured its waste classification. In what is wrongly claimed to be an industry first – Blenkharn Environmental proposed […]
Managing incontinence waste
Managing incontinence waste is a vast problem, and predictably on for which there is generally little care. It’s a waste stream that needs to be shifted, let’s get on with […]
Waste pharmaceuticals
The New England Journal of Medicine last week carries a wonderful Perspective piece (Shrank WH. Our Bulging Medicine Cabinets – the other side of medication nonadherence. N Engl J Med […]
Clinical wastes at the heart of the community?
Many nursing homes, small clinics and GP surgeries manage their clinical and other wastes in ways that would, should, cross the line toward prosecution. Those wishing to track back through […]
Clinical waste management – bringing science to the selection of contractors
In a hugely interesting paper from Taiwan, Chao Chung Ho has applied science to the selection of waste management contractors. Chao Chung Ho. Optimal evaluation of infectious medical waste disposal […]
Reading to stop domestic clinical/sanitary waste collections?
‘A Labour councillor has “kicked up a stink” over a decision to stop the special collection of unpleasant clinical waste after complaints from the public. ‘Following a decision by one […]
“Fears” over proposals for Wakefield clinical waste centre
Plans for the conversion of a building in Normanton into a waste treatment centre dealing with “as much as” 34,000 tonnes of waste a year are receiving a predictably rocky ride […]
Charges to collect discarded sharps
Local Authorities have a statutory obligation to collect discarded sharps and related hazardous waste items from public land. Audit of LA performance standardsidentifies a widely variable standard of operation, with some […]
Manufacturers work to reduce clinical waste
There is much chatter at present, and many glossy advertisements backed up with frothy press releases, to describe the work of a consortium of major medical device manufacturers who promise […]
Sharps theft
Sharps bins are attractive to addicts. They contain needles and syringes, and where drug disposal is less good may contain narcotic analgesics and other controlled drugs conveniently drawn up in […]
Spillage of clinical wastes from vehicles
Several bags of clinical (medical) waste have been found along US 30 in Warsaw, Indiana. The bags were reported to contain medical waste and other items that came from Kosciusko Community Hospital. […]
Hygiene precautions for waste handlers
Blenkharn Environmental has considerable experience in the audit and assessment of biosafety and hygiene precautions for waste handlers. Embracing safety enhancements for all of those involved in the generation of a diverse range […]
InterCare medical aid for Africa
Compared with the rest of the world, we are fortunate in the UK to have our National Health Service with its world-renowned accessibility, free at the point of care, its […]
Demanding the impossible
HTM 07-01 recommends extensive segregation of waste and in their turn the Environment Agency expects that it will happen and penalises waste management operators if it doesn’t. That regulatory stance […]
NHS Western Isles campaign to reduce medicine waste
A campaign aimed at reducing an estimated £44 million wasted on medicines across Scotland every year has been launched today by four Local Health Boards in the North of Scotland, […]
Homeopathic ‘medicine’ disposal
GP magazine has used FOI requests to confirm that of two thirds of Primary Care Trusts, 31% were paying for patients to use the highly-diluted homeopathic remedies despite evidence that these have no […]
Bed roll waste
Visiting today a highly regarded NHS Imaging (Radiology) Department – perhaps the biggest in London – I was able to see almost every room and treatment bay ranging from a wide […]