Sharps Waste - Management and Disposal

Management and Disposal

Extreme care must be taken in the management and disposal of sharps waste. The main goal in sharps waste management is to safely handle all materials until they can be properly disposed. The final step in the disposal of sharps waste is to dispose of them in an autoclave. A less common approach is to incinerate them, typically only chemotherapy sharps waste is incinerated. Steps must be taken along the way to minimize the risk of injury from this material, while maximizing the amount of sharps material disposed.

From the moment sharps waste is produced, it is to be handled as little as possible. Health care workers are to minimize their interaction with sharps waste by disposing of it in a sealable container. If the sharps waste incorporates an additional part, such as a syringe, tube, or handle the whole unit is disposed together. Attempts by health care workers to disassemble sharps waste is kept to a minimum. Strict hospital protocols and government regulations ensure that hospital workers handle sharps waste safely and dispose effectively.

The self-locking and sealable containers are made of plastic so that the sharps waste can not easily penetrate through the sides. The unit is designed so that the whole container can be disposed of with the other biohazardous waste. Single use sharps containers of various sizes are sold throughout the world. They are now commonplace in clinics and hospitals. Large medical facilities may have their own 'mini' autoclave in which these sharps containers are disposed of with other medical wastes. This minimizes the distance the containers have to travel and the number of people to come in contact with the sharps waste. Smaller clinics or offices without such facilities are required by federal regulations to hire the services of a company that specializes in transporting and properly disposing of the hazardous wastes.

Recent legislation in France has stated that pharmaceutical companies supplying self injection medications are responsible for the disposal of spent needles. Previously popular needle clippers and caps are no longer acceptable as safety devices and either sharps box or needle destruction devices are required.

Disposal methods vary by country and locale, but common methods of disposal are either by truck service or, in the United States, by disposal of sharps through the mail. Truck service involves trained personnel collecting sharps waste, and often medical waste, at the point of generation and hauling it away by truck to a destruction facility. Similarly, the mail-back sharps disposal method allows generators to ship sharps waste to the disposal facility directly through the U.S. mail in specially designed and approved shipping containers. Mail-back sharps disposal allows waste generators to dispose of smaller amounts of sharps more economically than if they were to hire out a truck service.