Learn about the importance of color coding in medical waste management. Discover the different color codes used for segregation of waste, including red for biohazard, yellow for radioactive, blue and white for non-hazardous, and black for hazardous waste. Improve safety for your staff and protect the environment with proper segregation and disposal of medical waste.
Color coding is one of the many systems in place within healthcare facilities to reduce the risk of injury, maintain compliance with biomedical waste, and keep medical waste disposal costs low.
The main different types of biomedical waste include biohazardous waste, sharps waste, pathological waste, chemotherapy waste, and hazardous waste.
What happens to medical waste differs based on the waste stream, and color coding ensures each stream is disposed of properly.
The following is the most common for hazardous waste colors:
Red bins represent biohazardous material. This is one of the main reasons that biohazard waste is referred to red bag waste. This is any medical waste that has been contaminated with blood or other potentially infectious materials.
Yellow containers are for trace amounts of chemotherapy waste. This can be any medical waste that came into contact with chemotherapeutic agents. Yellow bins are lined with a yellow bag and should be clearly labeled as "CHEMO WASTE."
Blue containers are for non hazardous pharmaceutical waste. This is any prescription or over the counter drug that goes unused. It is a good idea to use a sequestration device which prevents unauthorized access to pharmaceutical waste.
Black bins represent hazardous waste. Hazardous waste is any waste with the following characteristics: ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, or toxicity.
It is also important to note that there are proper bins for regular non hazardous waste as well.
A great first step to segregate medical waste is setting up a color coding medical waste system within your medical facilities.
Medical waste disposal companies often state that medical facilities are not properly segregating medical waste.
Since regulated medical waste must be sterilized to properly dispose of, medical waste disposal costs more than regular waste management.
To keep costs low, protect the environment from hazardous waste, and stay compliant with local and federal guidelines - proper biomedical waste segregation is a must and color codes are a great starting point.
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