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Medical waste collections
Some types of healthcare-related waste are suitable for disposal in your black bin. This is classed as non-hazardous medical waste.
Medical waste can have an offensive odour or appearance but is not infectious. We recommend putting this waste in tied bags to reduce the chance of leakages.
Examples include:
- catheter and stoma bags - drained
- wound dressings - non-infectious
- soiled bedding - vomit, human waste
- nasal and respiratory secretions
- condoms
- sanitary waste
- adult nappies
- plasters
- incontinence pads
Medicines, inhalers or drugs should not be disposed of in your general waste - you should take these to your local pharmacy for safe disposal.
We can offer a larger bin capacity or weekly waste collections if you're struggling with the amount of waste your household generates due to medical needs.
Contact us to discuss how we can help you dispose of medical waste that may not fit in your normal rubbish bin or recycling box.
Please note: we don't collect medical waste from businesses, charities or doctors’ surgeries.
Clinical waste collections
Clinical waste refers to any waste that poses a potential risk of infection, injury, or contamination to human health or the environment.
Examples include:
- infectious swabs and dressings
- dialysis products
This type of waste is generated from medical treatment or self-care at home and must be disposed of separately from your general household waste.
You will be advised by your doctor or healthcare professional if you have clinical waste. If you receive medical treatment at home from a healthcare professional, they should remove your clinical waste.
We can collect bagged clinical waste (orange bags) for infectious waste such as surgical waste and pharmaceutical products only following a referral from York District Hospital.
Sharps box collections
Telephone: 01904 551551 to arrange the collection of yellow or purple sharps boxes obtained from your healthcare provider if you’re receiving ongoing treatment.
We'll need to know the size of any box being collected (in litres) and the total number of boxes which need collecting, to complete a booking. If these details are incorrect, we'll not be able to complete the collection.
You should wait until you have a number of sharps boxes before making any booking, rather than book collections for single boxes. We're only able to collect single sharps boxes as a one-off collection, where there will be no further requests for collections - for example after a single course of treatment which will not be repeated.
Before requesting a collection, note that:
- we don't provide replacement yellow sharps (needles) boxes - you need to request these from your healthcare provider
- we won't collect loose needles or needles presented in any container other than a sealed sharps box
Missed clinical waste collections
See details of how we deal with missed clinical waste collections.
Contact us within 5 days of your collection being missed.
Missed medical waste collections
See details of how we deal with missed medical waste collections.
Contact us within 5 days of your collection being missed.
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