Clinical Waste

Definition
“…a waste which consists wholly or partly of human or animal tissue, blood or other bodily fluids,
excretions, drugs or other pharmaceutical products, swabs, or dressings, syringes or other sharp
instruments, being waste which unless rendered safe may prove hazardous to any person
coming into contact with it…’
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“…any other waste arising from medical, nursing, dental, veterinary, pharmaceutical or similar
practice, investigations, treatment, care, teaching or research, or the collection of blood for
transfusion, being made waste which may cause infection to any person coming into contact with
it.”
The Trust recognises that within this waste stream there are several types of
waste that must be segregated to comply with current legislation. The Trust’s
segregation policies are based on the Department of Health, ‘Safe Management
of Healthcare Waste’ guidance and are as follows:

Infectious Waste – Incineration Only Disposal
The Trust is legally required to consign the following waste streams for
incineration:
• Anatomical (recognisable human/animal tissue),
• Infectious waste contaminated with chemicals
• Infectious Waste contaminated with medical residues
• Category ‘A’ infectious rare high risk micro-organisms such as Ebola Virus,
Yellow fever, etc.
The Trust will allocate in agreement with each department producing these types
of waste stream appropriate packaging using the yellow waste stream.
Bags are not designed or tested for significant quantities of liquid waste for
example blood, urine and leg ulcer waste. Rigid leak proof containers or
solidifying gels must be used.

Anatomical Waste
The Safe Management of Healthcare Waste guidance
allocates the colour red to this waste stream. The Trust’s
policy, wherever possible, is to use red lidded/labelled rigid
containers for anatomical waste. Due to restrictions on size
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and type of packages that can be supplied the Trust does allow where
appropriate the use of yellow...