Medical Waste

THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF MEDICAL WASTE:

Unregulated Medical Waste, also known as Home Generated Medical Waste, includes syringes, sharps, and other medical waste such as bandages, dressings, or medical bags that are generated from home medical use, and not administered by a licensed healthcare professional.

  • Soiled bandages, dressings or medical bags should be placed in a separate container, sealed, and clearly labeled before being placed in the regular household trash.
  • For more information on how to dispose of needles and syringes from unregulated medical waste or home generated medical waste, please see needles and syringes.

Regulated Medical Waste (RMW) is the portion of waste generated in the medical industry which requires special handling and treatment prior to disposal.

These are certified medical waste haulers who service Regulated Medical Waste in Vermont:

NOTES

The following types of solid waste are considered Regulated Medical Waste (RMW):

  • Pathological Waste (Body parts and tissues)
  • Human blood, blood products, and other body fluids–any liquid waste including blood, blood products, or items saturated or dripping with blood or other potentially infectious body fluids
  • Cultures and shocks of infectious agents
  • Sharps–objects that are capable of cutting or penetrating the skin and inducing subdermal inoculation of an infectious agent. This includes needles, Pasteur pipettes and scalpel blades. Discarded unused Sharps are also considered RMW.
  • Animal waste–animal carcasses, body parts, bedding and other items from animals that are known or suspected by either the Department of Health or the Department of Agriculture of being contaminated with organisms that can produce disease in humans; and that disposal by burial or other ordinarily acceptable means would not sufficiently reduce the risk of transmission of a disease to humans or other animals
  • Chemotherapy waste
  • Infectious isolation waste–biological waste and discarded materials contaminated with blood, body fluids, excretion, exudates or secretions from humans who are isolated to protect others from dangerous incommunicable diseases
  • Biotechnological by-product effluents–any discarded preparation made from genetically altered living organisms.

For more information, see the Vermont Regulated Medical Waste Locator.