Advice and support for clinical waste management?
Who provides advice and support to producers for aspects of clinical waste management? There are always many questions, and access to information can be troublesome. Who to ask? A waste […]
waste segregation
Tissue waste disposal
Tissue waste disposal is a sometimes difficult issue, since patients may have their own view on disposal, perhaps of an amputated limb, or of a placenta, than do healthcare professionals.
Hazardous substances in Europe’s fresh and marine waters
EEA Technical report No 8/2011 provides a comprehensive overview of hazardous substances in Europe’s fresh and marine waters. The document should provide a starting point, or refresher, for all those […]
£20k savings on clinical waste disposal
Northampton General Hospital claims savings of around £20,000 on clinical waste disposal through their initiatives to drive enhanced source segregation and exclude inapproriate items into clinical waste containers. “We’ve asked […]
Hospital dumping solid clinical waste into sewer
Staff at Mary Washington Hospital in Virginia, US, have been dumping medical waste in the city sewer system, including two recent cases when used bandages, gloves and syringes clogged a […]
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 […]
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.
Are safety sharp devices really safe?
A couple of years ago, when the talk about the potential of safety sharp devices in reducing sharps injuries I had a wager with a good friend, that the incidence […]
Medical waste dumped into Satilla River, Ware County, Georgia
It seems that it turns up everywhere, medical or clinical waste umped into the environment generally by small producers and those seeking to avoid disposal costs, or by others who […]
Taking glass out of pathology wastes
The vast majority of pathology laboratory waste can be recycled. It contains a high proportion of plastic and with the exception of glass, not much else. That glass fraction is […]
Sharps waste recycling
Sharps waste recycling, and indeed recycling of materials including ATT-processed plastics, latex and metals from non-sharps waste must be an environmentally sound option when compared with incineration alone. It is […]
Reporting of sharps injury – will Council Directive 2010/32/EU help?
Recent reports from New Zealand and Ireland report underreporting of sharps injuries in around one third of doctors and nurses respectively. This is in accord with the many other studies […]
Painting with hospital waste
An artist in Karimnagar, Andhra Pradesh, India is making a name for herself ‘painting’ with hospital waste. Using caps from various vials and bottle caps etc, to assemble collages, this […]
Colour-coded sack holders
Ever since the mis-guided reversal of colour coding for clinical wastes, from red/yellow/Tiger, to yellow/orange/Tiger there has been a plethora of minor publications concerning errors in waste segregation and proposing […]
Chemical composition of laboratory wastes?
Clinical wastes from laboratories in hospitals, universities and other research or manufacturing facilities may comprise a variety of hazardous materials and will usually be considered as hazardous by risk of […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Waste pre-acceptance criteria
I have been asked for views on clinical waste pre-acceptance criteria, and the various layers of EA guidance – it is only guidance and not law, and if a better […]
NHS managers ordered to consider environmental impact
It is reported in today’s Guardian that NHS managers have been “ordered” to consider the environmental impact of their decisions.
Students salvaging waste medical supplies
It is inevitable that in healthcare many expensive supplies are opened and unpacked for use but never actually used. These items are then discarded as clinical waste, though they need […]
£100,000 for Trust’s clinical waste disposal
It is reported that an Avery Weigh-Tronix weighing system is to be installed at East Kent Hospital Trust with a view to save £100,000 per year on its clinical waste […]
Risk management in waste segregation
Several groups have published on the gains that can be made through more detailed source segregation of wastes. Sadly, the message has generally been overstated by an insistence of a degree […]
Disposal of couch rolls
An interesting discussion of Podiatry Forum questions the responsibility for the costs of disposal of clinical waste sacks in a shared consulting room. Though that is not our concern, it […]
Nurses on ‘cleanup mission’?
While the environmental pressure group Health Care Without Harm is supporting a group of US nurses to improve source segregation to minimise ‘red bag’ or clinical waste volumes, some tough […]
Impact of segregation errors
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 […]