Biohazardous Waste Disposal

Biohazardous waste is any dangerous materials that can spread infections and diseases to humans, animals, and the environment, causing harm and contamination due to its biological nature. It’s sometimes referred to as biohazard waste for short. Most biohazardous waste comes from healthcare settings where waste contains potentially infectious elements.

It’s important to understand the difference between biohazardous and hazardous waste to store, manage, and dispose of it properly. Both are dangerous and pose serious health risks to humans, animals, and the environment, but their different nature are what causes these hazards.

Biohazard waste is harmful due to its biological nature and ability to spread infectious diseases, such as via bloodborne pathogens. Hazardous waste is dangerous due to its chemical properties, such as its flammability, toxicity, reactivity, and corrosivity. If the danger is from a biological element, it’s biohazardous waste. If it’s from a chemical element, then it’s hazardous waste.

Anything that could spread infection or disease that may harm humans, animals, or the environment is an example of biohazardous waste. Many examples of biohazardous waste come from medical settings such as hospitals, healthcare centres, and pharmacies. Common biohazardous waste examples from clinical settings are:

• Anatomical waste – pathological waste including human tissue, body parts, organs, blood, and other bodily fluids.
• Infectious waste – items contaminated with infectious materials such as PPE, gloves, bandages, dressings, swabs, and wipes.
• Pharmaceutical waste – damaged, expired, or unused medication, including cytotoxic and cytostatic drugs that are dangerous to living cells.
• Sharps – needles, syringes, scalpels, knives, and other sharp items contaminated with blood and other biological material that could be infectious.

Biohazardous waste can’t be recycled, recovered, or reused due to its potentially infectious nature. It should never go into landfill either, as it can cause contamination while also adding to pollution levels. How biohazard waste is disposed of depends on the facility where it’s transported to and the type of materials.

These are the main methods of biohazardous waste disposal:

• Incineration – the biohazardous materials are burned at incredibly high temperatures to destroy their infectious nature. This is common for sharps and pathological waste. It’s essential for any biohazard waste that can’t be treated to ensure complete destruction and minimise the risk of infection spreading.
• Autoclaving – this is a common method where high temperatures and high-pressure steam are applied to destroy the infectious agents. This sterilises the materials so they can then be sent to energy-from-waste facilities for safe disposal. It’s often used for clinical waste such as PPE, bandages, and dressings.
• Chemical treatment – pharmaceutical waste that’s biohazardous may be chemically treated to neutralise any biologically dangerous elements. This is less common but a possible option for some used, expired, or damaged medication.

If your business produces any type of biohazardous waste, then we’re here to help. At Business Waste, we can provide free bins, bags, and containers to separate and store any type and amount of biohazardous waste. There are no delivery or hire charges – you only pay for collection.

Fill each container with relevant materials and then arrange Biohazardous waste removal on a daily, weekly, or fortnightly basis. Licensed waste carriers will remove your waste at an agreed time and day and transport it safely to an appropriate waste management facility for disposal.