Recycling A-ZClinical & Biological Waste

The Controlled Waste Regulations 1992 define clinical waste as waste arising from medical, nursing, dental, pharmaceutical, teaching and research or similar practices of which the following will be generated:

• sharps (syringe needles, scalpel blades, broken lab glass)
• laboratory culture waste
• miscellaneous biological waste
• HEPA (high-efficiency particulate absorbing) filters (for example from laminar flow cabinets and ventilation systems)
• animal body parts, tissue, fluids, excreta & bedding
• lab material (swabs, tissues, gloves etc.) contaminated with animal tissue, body fluids/excreta
• human tissue, body parts, fluids & excreta
• lab material (swabs, tissues, gloves) contaminated with human tissue or body fluids/excreta
• pharmaceuticals, including controlled drugs.

Departments are required to keep accurate records of the clinical waste they produce. For auditing, departments should retain these records for at least three years. Labelling should take the form of cardboard labels with a pre-printed sticky label secured by cable ties. Below is a guide to the information and its format that should be recorded on the labels.

The labels will contain the following information:

• the department, for example, Strathclyde Insitute for Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences (SIPBS), Biomedical Engineering (BioEng) and so on
• the source, for example, human (H) or animal (A)
• the year, for example, 2023
• numbers starting from 0001
• the type of waste, for example:
  • Cytotoxic (Cyt)-specially labelled yellow with an additional poison label
  • Class 1 animal Pathogens (Sp)-yellow bags
  • Autoclaved Non Infectious (NI)-orange bags
  • Non-Autoclaved Potentially infectious (PI)-yellow bags
  • Sharps (Sh)-yellow-lidded container
  • Cytotoxic Sharps (Cyt Sh)-purple lidded container or yellow lidded labelled with Cytotoxic warning label
  • Offensive waste (Off)-yellow bags, rigid yellow container.

Examples of info on the label: 

• BPU/PI/A/2011/2012-00
• CRCUK/Cyt/H/2012-001
• BioEng/Off/A/2012-0001

Clinical waste is uplifted from the University on specific dates at specific locations throughout the year. Notification of these dates will be given to those departments registered with Estates as requiring this service.

The uplifts take place every alternate Tuesday and start around 1 pm, moving around the campus to the locations requiring uplift after that. On an uplift day, Estates will contact the departmental nominated representative to inform them of the expected uplift time. After that, the designated staff member shall pass the waste to the clinical waste contractor and confirm the final quantities to a representative of Estates who will be present at the uplift.

Estates Services retains a small top-up quantity of clinical waste supplies (bags/small sharps containers). Our clinical waste contractor supplies larger containers (from 60ltr to 770ltr) on request. Departments requiring clinical waste bags (yellow/orange) or sharps containers, or any other containers should email clinicalwaste@strath.ac.uk 

All service users must ensure they have correctly identified their waste, including matching it to the standard set of European Waste Codes (EWCs). If the waste type being removed changes, users must notify clinicalwaste@strath.ac.uk before the standard collection cut-off to ensure the waste contractor is aware of any changes and can organise a safe and compliant disposal route, ensuring safe handling, disposal and charging. Guidance on categorising waste using EWCs can be found from SEPA's Example of European Waste Codes (pdf). Additional support can be received by contacting clinicalwaste@strath.ac.uk if required.

Indicative treatment/disposal required is incineration in a suitably permitted or licensed facility.

• Waste which has been autoclaved
• Indicative treatment/disposal required has been “rendered safe” in a suitably permitted facility
• Note: this waste may also be disposed of by incineration

• indicative treatment/disposal required is incineration in a suitably permitted or licensed facility
• note: sealed containers and bags must be labelled with a Cytotoxic label

• sharps, for example
  • needles
  • syringes with needles attached
  • broken glass ampoules
  • scalpel and other blades
  • infusion sets (the sharps part)
• medicinal waste in the form of:
  • bottles
  • vials
• note: containers with sharps contaminated with Cytotoxic/Cytostatic medicinal products must be labelled as Cytotoxic waste.

Offensive waste – for example, body parts or other recognisable anatomical items, such as small animal carcasses (larger items can be placed in larger receptacles).

Final transfer vessels available for larger quantities of waste.