'WASTE' SHOULD NOT HARM US

                        

             Bio- hazardous Waste (Regulated Medical Waste)

Some wastes associated with biological materials must be disposed of in special ways because they may have been contaminated with infectious organisms or agents. These  are potentially infectious or biohazardous materials. These wastes include the following:

• All sharps, e.g. glass implements, needles, syringes, blades, etc. coming from facilities using infectious materials 
• Biologically-cultured stocks and plates, human blood or tissues

For disposal of these wastes, the lab personnel:

1. Sterilize or disinfect waste materials associated with viral, bacterial or other agents infectious to humans (by autoclave or chemical treatment equivalent to 1:10 bleach solution). 
2. Place all biohazardous wastes, except for sharps, directly into the red bag-lined medical waste boxes. 
3. Place sharps into labeled sharps containers which when filled are placed into the medical waste box. 
4. When the Medical Waste box is filled, seal the bag liner and box and notify janitor for pick-up.

   IMPORTANT LABELLING REQUIREMENT:Lab personnel must apply an adhesive-backed label completed with generator information to each bag or container (such as autoclaved bags or filled sharps containers) placed into the medical waste box. Building Services provides such a label that has space to record Date, Building, Lab #, and Contact Person. Apply this label to all containers placed inside the medical waste box AND to the exterior of the sealed medical waste box before it is made available for pick-up by Building Services. Alternatively, the inner bags and containers can be marked clearly with a permanent marker to indicate "Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey."

Other wastes generated in these facilities that are not contaminated with biological agents or materials are not treated as bio-hazardous and may be discarded in the regular trash container, with recyclables, or into other specially designated waste containers. These include such items as recyclable and non-recyclable waste glass, gloves, unused plates or tubes, fly media or embryo plates, etc.

 It is intended for laboratories using biological and/or chemical materials.
Choose the waste model that most clearly fits the waste being generated and follow the indicated management procedures. 

Patient Care Waste Disposal

All disposable wastes generated in hospitals' direct patient care are considered potentially infectious and are disposed of in the medical waste stream. Syringes, needles, and other sharps are placed in the provided sharps container which, when filled and sealed are placed in the provided medical waste box. When boxes are filled and sealed, they are removed. Patient care waste generated at other sites on campus by medical response personnel (i.e. Public Safety) are placed in biohazard bags and brought. 

A program is in place to ensure that needles and syringes generated as part of personal diabetes care will not be an exposure hazard to others. Collection containers are available from McCosh Health Center which, when filled, are returned to Health Center for proper disposal in the medical waste stream.