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Clinical Waste Regulations, Waste Legislations and Laws

Guidance for clinical waste regulation compliance

In the UK there is legislation in place to ensure that hazardous clinical waste, including dental waste, is managed safely and disposed of in a way that ensures human health and the environment remains free from harm.

Initial Medical understands the legal obligations placed on organisations and provides advice and best practice recommendations to ensure your clinical waste is handled, transported and disposed of in safe and effective manner whilst ensuring compliance with regulations.

All clinical waste handling and disposal procedures must comply with the following regulations:

• The Environmental Protection Act 1990 (including the Duty of Care Regulations)
• The Controlled Waste Regulations 2012
• The Hazardous Waste Directive 2011
• The Carriage of Dangerous Goods Regulations

The main legislation governing clinical waste disposal is The Environmental Protection Act 1990. This stipulates that all producers of waste have a Duty of Care to ensure the correct and proper management of waste is performed and states that it is unlawful to deposit, recover or dispose of controlled clinical waste without a waste management licence, or in a way that causes pollution of the environment or harm to human health.

The key principles of clinical waste regulations relate to the correct segregation, storage, disposal and documentation of waste.

The Environment Agency has imposed a legal requirement for waste producers to perform ‘pre-acceptance audits’ before their waste can be accepted and disposed of. This process audits all waste streams ensuring the correct classification of waste types is achieved.

The Safe Management of Healthcare Waste Memorandum (HTM 07-01) issued by the Department of Health provides guidance on the secure and legally compliant management of clinical waste.

The manual recommends that segregation of clinical waste occurs at the point of production utilising colour coded waste receptacles. The manual outlines a best practice waste segregation colour coding scheme for producers of waste to follow. This separation ensures clinical waste legislation is adhered to and waste is stored, transported, and disposed on in the correct manner.

The HTM 07-01 colour-coded waste segregation guide is as follows:

Initial Medical’s clinical waste services and range of clinical waste disposal bins conform to this colour coding scheme enabling effective waste segregation and compliance with relevant legislation to be achieved.

For more information or for further advice on how Initial Medical's clinical waste services can ensure your organisation is complying with the relevant regulations please get in touch.

Pre-Acceptance Waste Audit

Guidance and advice for pre acceptance waste audit completion for producers of clinical waste.

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