Pat, Here is what our environmental engineer had to say about your questions. He can NEVER dispose the needles or any of these things in regular trash. If he can separate our some of the debris, (i.e. gloves, lab coats) he may be able to go with someone like SDS (Specialty Disposal Services) and do a waste characterization on the material to determine if it is, indeed, medical waste. Going w/ SDS on some of the streams may save him a little money. He will have to use Stericycle or equivalent for needles and other true med wastes. The 10% bleach w/ product is fine, provided that the sewerage authority is ok with this stuff going to drain. It's very expensive, but it is the only way of handling these materials. It may be beneficial to find a different licensed med waste hauler as a lot of folks complain about Stericycle's pricing. I hope this helps. -----Original Message----- From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Patricia Peifer Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 3:22 PM To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: [DCHAS-L] BBP Waste Issues I currently work at a company which occasionally gets involved in testing on drug products which are derived from human blood. We give all our lab employees Bloodborne Pathogen training and offer the the Hep B vaccination and essentially try to follow all the requirements of the BBP Standard. These drug products have been tested and are certified to be pathogen-free, but of course, there is always to remote possibility that they may not be, so our employees are to use the Universal Precautions when working with these blood-derived drugs. I have been using Stericycle to get rid of our waste which consists of sharps and contaminated gowns, gloves, kim wipes, etc. I could not find anyone who would take leftover drug product for disposal, but a reliable source told me to add 10% bleach to it, let stand for 30 minutes, then dispose of down the drain. Here's what I'm wondering... We are definately a small-scale generator of this type of waste ( the sharps and contaminated gowns, gloves, kim wipes, etc.) The Stericycle service is expensive and inconvenient. Is anyone else autoclaving this type of waste (apparently the red bags and red sharps containers are autoclavable) then placing the autoclaved waste into a regular trash bag and disposing in the regular trash, or for sharps, labeling for disposal as non-hazardous sharps after autoclaving? Thanks for any advice anyone can offer. Pat Peifer Project Manager, Safety & Training West Pharmaceutical Services 101 Gordon Drive Lionville, PA 19341 Phone:(610) 594-3278 Fax: (610) 594-3005
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