Cleaning Hygiene Today Cleaning Hygiene Magazine
There is often confusion in the medical profession about clinical waste; what is classed as hazardous offensive waste and what is infectious waste? Those in the medical profession are worried about infection control and lack of training can often lead to increased levels of clinical waste being produced and disposed of, which may come with a hefty price tag.
Health centres and dentists and all those in the healthcare sector are being advised to work with companies such as B&M Waste Services who work with businesses across the country to not only provide total waste management services, but also training programmes as part of waste minimisation strategies.
‘Offensive waste’ is non-clinical waste that’s non-infectious and doesn’t contain pharmaceutical or chemical substances, but may be unpleasant to anyone who comes into contact with it.
Graeme Knight, Director at B&M Waste Services said: “With a critical lack of high temperature incineration in the UK disposal costs of hazardous wastes are increasing, therefore it is more important than ever to accurately classify your waste and reduce the amount sent as Hazardous or Offensive through correct segregation.
“The result can be financially rewarding for those in the health sector, at a time when we know NHS budgets are particularly tight. Not only this, our customers often also see increases in recycling levels, as trained staff place items in recycling bins as opposed to clinical waste containers. This will then be 100 per cent recycled or have energy recovered from it, them as opposed to being incinerated or sent for deep burial, and at a much cheaper rate than clinical waste disposal. We’ve worked with numerous hospitals, foundation trusts and individual doctors and dentists alike to aid understanding, increase recycling and ultimately reduce cost.”
