The term medical waste refers to many items. You don’t want anyone to come into contact with them once the person who produced them disposes of them. That means knowing the best practices for medical waste in an office and at-home setting.
You need sensible medical waste safety protocols, but luckily, you can usually find out about them easily. Most of what you’ll hear will fall into the common-sense category. You don’t need to go elsewhere to learn about how to manage and dispose of medical waste, though. We’ll give you a crash course in that subject now.
What Constitutes Medical Waste?
The term “medical waste” might encompass a great deal. While you might quibble about whether certain objects constitute medical waste, most people will agree on certain objects falling into this category.
You would consider any cleanup from a trauma scene medical waste. Sharps, the needles you use for everyday medical purposes, would fall into this category.
Any sort of radioactive material would fall into the medical waste category. You would also consider cytotoxic waste as medical waste.
You can call pharmaceutical products like contaminated or unused vaccines medical waste. Any unused medication gets this designation. Pathological waste such as human organs, fluids, etc. will also get this designation.
You can technically consider a used tissue or a Band-Aid medical waste as well. However, while you must dispose of everything else that we just mentioned very carefully, you can usually just put these other items directly into the trash with other refuse.
Getting Rid of Medical Waste in the Home
You might produce things like used sharps in the home, or you may have some unused medication sometimes that you no longer need. You might also produce some similar waste at work. You will see similar disposal methods in both locales, for the most part.
In your home, you might want to purchase and have a sharps container on the premises if you are someone who regularly uses sharps to administer medication. Maybe you have received a diabetes diagnosis and you are using sharps to regulate your blood sugar. That is a relatively common condition these days.
Regardless of what medical waste you’re producing in the home, you will want to do a little research to see what your state wants you to do with it. You may be able to take a sharps container with needles in it and put it right in the trash when you no longer need it.
If you have other medical waste, you might use the double bag method, where you take the waste, put it in a heavy-duty opaque trash bag, and then double knot it. You can put that inside a second trash bag and double knot that as well.
That’s about as careful as you can get with medical waste you produce in the home. No governing body should penalize you for these practices.
Containing and Disposing of Medical Waste in an Office Setting
In an office setting, you might have a lot of medical waste depending on what your company does. For example, a doctor’s office, clinic, or hospital will likely have a ton of medical waste it must get rid of on a daily basis.
However, even standard offices will sometimes produce sharps or have expired medication that needs disposal. You might have a medical emergency from time to time that leaves some waste products behind.
You can have a sharps container at your place of work as well. You should have a designated place to keep it. When each new employee comes on board, you will want to make them aware of it. You can have the location clearly marked and away from anywhere that might cause a contamination issue.
You can also use red biohazard bags in a workplace setting. You can easily order some and have them ready for any medical emergency that transpires. Something like a cut or a nosebleed might produce medical waste, and putting the items you used in a red medical bag out of the way makes sense.
You can hire a company that will come once a week to pick up any medical waste. That’s the real difference between at-home medical waste disposal and that which takes place in an office. Of course, if you work in a hospital or somewhere that produces more medical waste than a standard office environment, you may need the disposal company to come every day.
Image by Alex Koch from Pexels
The editorial staff of Medical News Bulletin had no role in the preparation of this post. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the advertiser and do not reflect those of Medical News Bulletin. Medical News Bulletin does not accept liability for any loss or damages caused by the use of any products or services, nor do we endorse any products, services, or links in our Sponsored Articles
The term medical waste refers to many items. You don’t want anyone to come into contact with them once the person who produced them disposes of them. That means knowing the best practices for medical waste in an office and at-home setting.
You need sensible medical waste safety protocols, but luckily, you can usually find out about them easily. Most of what you’ll hear will fall into the common-sense category. You don’t need to go elsewhere to learn about how to manage and dispose of medical waste, though. We’ll give you a crash course in that subject now.
What Constitutes Medical Waste?
The term “medical waste” might encompass a great deal. While you might quibble about whether certain objects constitute medical waste, most people will agree on certain objects falling into this category.
You would consider any cleanup from a trauma scene medical waste. Sharps, the needles you use for everyday medical purposes, would fall into this category.
Any sort of radioactive material would fall into the medical waste category. You would also consider cytotoxic waste as medical waste.
You can call pharmaceutical products like contaminated or unused vaccines medical waste. Any unused medication gets this designation. Pathological waste such as human organs, fluids, etc. will also get this designation.
You can technically consider a used tissue or a Band-Aid medical waste as well. However, while you must dispose of everything else that we just mentioned very carefully, you can usually just put these other items directly into the trash with other refuse.
Getting Rid of Medical Waste in the Home
You might produce things like used sharps in the home, or you may have some unused medication sometimes that you no longer need. You might also produce some similar waste at work. You will see similar disposal methods in both locales, for the most part.
In your home, you might want to purchase and have a sharps container on the premises if you are someone who regularly uses sharps to administer medication. Maybe you have received a diabetes diagnosis and you are using sharps to regulate your blood sugar. That is a relatively common condition these days.
Regardless of what medical waste you’re producing in the home, you will want to do a little research to see what your state wants you to do with it. You may be able to take a sharps container with needles in it and put it right in the trash when you no longer need it.
If you have other medical waste, you might use the double bag method, where you take the waste, put it in a heavy-duty opaque trash bag, and then double knot it. You can put that inside a second trash bag and double knot that as well.
That’s about as careful as you can get with medical waste you produce in the home. No governing body should penalize you for these practices.
Containing and Disposing of Medical Waste in an Office Setting
In an office setting, you might have a lot of medical waste depending on what your company does. For example, a doctor’s office, clinic, or hospital will likely have a ton of medical waste it must get rid of on a daily basis.
However, even standard offices will sometimes produce sharps or have expired medication that needs disposal. You might have a medical emergency from time to time that leaves some waste products behind.
You can have a sharps container at your place of work as well. You should have a designated place to keep it. When each new employee comes on board, you will want to make them aware of it. You can have the location clearly marked and away from anywhere that might cause a contamination issue.
You can also use red biohazard bags in a workplace setting. You can easily order some and have them ready for any medical emergency that transpires. Something like a cut or a nosebleed might produce medical waste, and putting the items you used in a red medical bag out of the way makes sense.
You can hire a company that will come once a week to pick up any medical waste. That’s the real difference between at-home medical waste disposal and that which takes place in an office. Of course, if you work in a hospital or somewhere that produces more medical waste than a standard office environment, you may need the disposal company to come every day.
Image by Alex Koch from Pexels
The editorial staff of Medical News Bulletin had no role in the preparation of this post. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the advertiser and do not reflect those of Medical News Bulletin. Medical News Bulletin does not accept liability for any loss or damages caused by the use of any products or services, nor do we endorse any products, services, or links in our Sponsored Articles
