Segregation, Packaging and Labelling of Hospital Waste

WHO (1999) stated that waste segregation is the act of separating waste of different categories prior to storage. Careful segregation of hospital waste from non-hospital waste or of one group of hospital waste from the other is essential for effective management. The segregation is expected to be done at source by the doctors, nurses or other personnel generating the waste and should be placed in suitable containers which should be leak proof to ensure that handlers and the public are protected from the effect of the exposure of the waste. The waste

storage sacks, bags, cellophane, should be properly sealed and labelled with the ward or section of origin.

Thus waste can be adequately segregated as follows;

Group A Waste: These should be placed in suitable black waste storage sacks or containers or lockable wheel plastic or iron vessel. They should be impervious to moisture and of strength sufficient to resist ripping, tearing or bursting under normal condition of use and labelled hospital waste when filled for collection. The baggage or container should be sealed and marked with the ward or section of origin.

Group B Waste: Sharp objects should be put into containers that conform to accepted standards. Also sharp containers should be sealed and labelled as to their origin after 5 days of use or when full, which ever occurs first. Damage containers should be placed in a larger in a larger container which should be properly labelled and must be kept above the ground level. All sharp objects should be decontaminated and at the same time destroyed to remove their potential to ensure physical harm.

Group C Waste:  These are microbiological cutters and potentially infectious waste from hospital laboratories which should be autoclaved on site at 211°C for 15 minutes prior to disposal site. Waste marked for autoclaved bags. The treated materials should be placed and labelled into sacks or containers for disposal in accordance with the guidance for group A waste.

Group D Waste: The unused or expired pharmaceutical and cytotoxic waste of less than 1% of hospital waste stream should be collected by a responsible (professional) person probably in the hospital pharmacy. These should be catalogued and stored under lock and key in approved and audited location. Once accumulated volumes reached feasible proportion, arrangements should be undertaken with the waste manager for the waste to be transported to a suitable facility possessing an incinerator or plasma thermal system capable of attaining above 1000°C which is the approved manners for their final disposal.

Reference

World Health Organisation (1999). Safe Management of Waste from Health Care Activities. WHO Training Leaflet No. 1. Geneva: Health Care Waste Series.