Household Clinical Waste

What is Clinical Waste?
Containers
Collections
Changing a Collection
Non-Hazardous Waste
Further Information

What is Clinical Waste?

Clinical waste is defined in the Controlled Waste Regulations 1992.  It means any waste which consists wholly or partly of:

  • human or animal tissue;
  • blood or bodily fluids;
  • excretions;
  • drugs or other pharmaceutical products;
  • swabs or dressings; or;
  • syringes, needles or other sharp instruments;

which unless rendered safe may prove hazardous to any person coming into contact with it, and:

  • any other waste arising from medical, nursing, dental, veterinary, pharmaceutical or similar practice, investigation, treatment, care teaching or research, or the collection of blood for transfusion, being waste which may cause infection to any person coming into contact with it.

Containers

Your NHS doctor, nurse, clinic or hospital will supply you with the first bag or box for your waste. We can only collect waste that is in the correct clinical waste bag or box.  No other containers will be collected.

Our contractor will replace your container with a new one when they pick up your waste. If you need additional supplies let us know and we will pass this request on to the contractor.

Collections

We can collect household clinical waste from you free of charge once a week.  Any bags or boxes of clinical waste must be left out for our contractor by 7am on the day of collection. You can use our online self-service form to report a missed clinical waste collection.

Changing a Collection

Please let us know promptly if you need to change any arrangement, e.g.:

  • You are going away for a period of time;
  • You no longer need a collection;
  • You want to change where you leave the bag or box;
  • You want us to pick up more bags or boxes from you; or
  • You want to reduce the number of bags or boxes we collect from you.

If you are cancelling a collection (temporarily or permanently), please give us at least 48 hours notice.

Non-Hazardous Waste

If the waste is non-hazardous, and as long as it is appropriately bagged and sealed, you may dispose of this with your normal household waste.

Further Information

Further information on Clinical Waste is available on the DEFRA website.

Page last updated on 29 March 2011