Medical Waste Collection Services

We specialise in the safe and effective collection of medical waste. Our highly trained and professional team are available to help on a one-off or contracted basis and we have contacts with specialist contractors to assist as necessary.

Types of Clinical or Medical Waste

Waste and by-products cover a diverse range of materials, as the following list illustrates:

• Infectious waste: waste contaminated with blood and other bodily fluids (e.g. from discarded diagnostic samples), cultures and stocks of infectious agents from laboratory work (e.g. waste from autopsies and infected animals from laboratories), or waste from patients with infections (e.g. swabs, bandages and disposable medical devices);
• Pathological waste: human tissues, organs or fluids, body parts and contaminated animal carcasses;
• Sharps waste: syringes, needles, disposable scalpels and blades, etc.;
• Chemical waste: for example solvents and reagents used for laboratory preparations, disinfectants, sterilants and heavy metals contained in medical devices (e.g. mercury in broken thermometers) and batteries;
• Pharmaceutical waste: expired, unused and contaminated drugs and vaccines;
• Cytotoxic waste: waste containing substances with genotoxic properties (i.e. highly hazardous substances that are, mutagenic, teratogenic or carcinogenic), such as cytotoxic drugs used in cancer treatment and their metabolites;
• Radioactive waste: such as products contaminated by radionuclides including radioactive diagnostic material or radiotherapeutic materials; and
• Non-hazardous or general waste: waste that does not pose any particular biological, chemical, radioactive or physical hazard.

The major sources of health-care waste are:

• hospitals and other health facilities
• laboratories and research centres
• mortuary and autopsy centres
• animal research and testing laboratories
• blood banks and collection services
• nursing homes for the elderly