Each facility generating regulated medical waste should have a written definition of the types of wastes/categories included as part of its regulated medical waste management procedure protocol. The definition should include those waste materials that are included in the definitions of regulated medical waste within applicable Federal, State, County, and Municipal regulations. Regulated medical waste generators should also consider the policies of local solid waste landfills that might exclude certain materials from the landfill, even though they are not regulated as medical waste. Common materials which are typically classified as regulated medical waste include, but are not limited to:
- Blood & blood products
- Items saturated with blood or blood products
- Other body fluids capable of harboring potentially infectious microorganisms and items contaminated with these fluids
- Cultures and stocks of microbiological agents including tissues fixed in formaldehyde
- Vaccines
- Sharps*
- Other potentially infectious materials
- Expired medications (Non hazardous and non narcotic) **
- Anatomical wastes (body parts and organs) of humans and animals (small) **
- Chemotherapy wastes (materials containing trace amounts – no more than 3% by weight of the total capacity of the container – of U-listed chemotherapeutic/cytotoxic agents) **
*Sharps may include, but are not limited to, needles, syringes, scalpels, slides, cover slips, pipettes and blood tubes. These materials may go through additional handling steps prior to disposal, and sharps represent the highest potential for injury and exposure. Sharps also include anything which is presently sharp, or has the potential to become sharp (if broken, etc.). Sharps must be packaged in rigid, sealed, puncture-resistant containers prior to being placed in the transport container(rigid plastic).
**Expired medications, anatomical parts and chemotherapy wastes are to be segregated and placed in a separate reusable container. These three waste streams may be combined in one reusable container. Either a red or yellow label may be used. These wastes are treated by high temperature incineration. If they are comingled with other medical waste, the entire container must be incinerated.