Clinical and healthcare waste
This page explains how to classify and manage clinical and healthcare waste. This includes understanding what counts as clinical waste, how it’s assessed, and what SEPA expects from waste producers.
What is clinical and healthcare waste?
Clinical and healthcare wastes are types of waste produced from medical, dental, veterinary and similar activities. They may pose a risk of infection, be chemically hazardous, or otherwise harmful to people or the environment.
Clinical waste refers specifically to waste that may pose an infection risk (such as swabs, bandages and dressings) or that may be otherwise hazardous, such as certain medicines. The Controlled Waste Regulations 1992 provide a widely used definition.
Healthcare waste is a broader term. It includes all waste described in Chapter 18 of the European Waste Catalogue (EWC), typically arising from human or animal healthcare activities that take place in hospitals, GP or dental practices, and veterinary surgeries.
Not all healthcare waste is clinical waste. For example, some chemicals or medicines may not pose an infection risk but still require careful handling.
Assessing and classifying your clinical and health waste
Both clinical and healthcare waste can be hazardous or non-hazardous. Like all waste types, they must be properly classified and assessed before disposal. Guidance on how to do this is available in Appendix C9 of the document Waste classification: Guidance on the classification and assessment of waste (WM3).
Management of clinical and healthcare waste
Clinical wastes and healthcare waste should be segregated from other types of waste and be treated/disposed of appropriately in suitably permitted, licensed or exempt facilities on the basis of the hazard it poses.
SEPA's position
Unless it can be satisfactorily demonstrated that healthcare wastes, as described by Chapter 18 of the EWC and EWC 20 01 31, have been adequately segregated and categorised then SEPA's default position is that healthcare waste should be assumed to be special (hazardous) waste until and unless proved otherwise.
Contact us
If you have any questions or require any further information or advice on any aspect of clinical or healthcare waste, please contact us.