clinical-waste

Avoiding Clinical Waste Disposal

Unfortunately, when it comes to disposing of hazardous or clinical waste, many people opt to throw these into a skip and cover it over with an assortment of other waste. For some it’s a simple mistake as they weren’t aware, others aren’t sure where it should be disposed of.
However, there are a number of reasons as to why we cannot remove this waste for you.

Clinical Waste

There is an array of waste that is considered to be clinical and therefore shouldn’t be in your standards household waste, or your skip either.
With Covid-19 having now been around for over 2 years, we have certainly noticed the increase in clinical waste appearing in our skips, likewise so have councils with their household waste. This is possibly due to many people now undertaking many aspects of healthcare within their own or their family home.

What Is Considered Clinical Waste

There are varying levels of clinical waste, with sharps and bodily fluids being included.

Sharps:
Sharps, under any circumstances, should not be disposed of in household waste, nor in a skip. These should only be disposed of in dedicated sharps bins and containers. This are available in health care settings and can be supplied to homes that require them (contact your local organisations)

Offensive Waste:

  • PPE used for patient care. e.g. (gloves/aprons/masks)
  • soiled dressings
  • empty catheter/stoma bags
  • incontinence pads
  • contaminated paper towels (body fluids)
  • sanitary products

The majority of this can be disposed of in household waste, however, we would recommend contacting your local council or health authority to ensure that this is the case. These should not be disposed of within your skip as the waste in a skip with DP Skips is sorted in a no landfill recycling centre.

High-Risk Clinical Waste:
Predominantly this is the same as above, however, has been used or infected by an individual which is known to have an infectious disease. Over the last two years, this has included Covid-19.

Clinical Waste For Home Healthcare

While here at Staffordshire Skip Hire we cannot offer support for those who have clinical waste for home healthcare purposes, we do want to ensure that you are disposing of your waste appropriately.
If you are caring for yourself or a family member where there will be clinical waste, we recommend contacting either the hospital/hospice/care company from which you receive support or your local council to ensure you have an appropriate disposal method.

Here at Staffordshire Skip Hire, we dispose of our waste at a zero-landfill facility. This means that our waste is taken to a recycling centre to be appropriately sorted and disposed of or recycled. Therefore clinical waste or any kind cannot be disposed of in skip hire Stoke-on-Trent.