Medical Waste Disposal Regulations

Today’s medical waste disposal regulations came about in the 1980’s, due to concerns about a large amount of potentially infections healthcare and medical waste washing up on beaches. As a result, in 1988, Congress enacted the Medical Waste Tracking Act. The Act required the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to come up with regulations concerning medical waste disposal, which it did. That Act expired in 1991. Now, each state has its own medical waste disposal regulations.

Several other federal agencies have medical waste regulations, including:
• Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
• The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
• Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA)

Disposal of Sharps

Proper sharps disposal is an important safety issue to prevent the spread of disease or blood borne pathogens, and to prevent inadvertent skin pricks or cuts to healthcare workers, janitorial services, and medical waste disposal teams. This is why the law now requires medical facilities or other agencies to have special hard-sided containers for sharps disposal, so that everyone is protected. Before lawmakers put regulations into place, medical facilities were routinely throwing needles and other sharps away in the regular trash.

Treatment and Disposal of Medical Waste

Before 1997, more than 90% of medical waste went to local incinerators. New EPA emissions standards for medical waste incinerators have resulted in cleaner burning medical waste incinerators. BioMedical Recovery Systems transports all of your medical waste to the local incinerator.

Other Treatments

The more stringent emissions standards mean some incinerators have shut down. As a result, the industry has developed a number of alternative treatments of medical waste, whereby the medical waste is treated with heat, steam or chemicals to make it non-infectious. Then the medical waste goes to a landfill or incinerator for disposal.

Maryland Medical Waste Disposal Regulations

Both the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene (DMHH) and the Department of the Environment (MDE) regulate various aspects of medical waste disposal and medical waste transportation. BioMedical Recovery Systems holds a license from the MDE to transport medical waste for disposal. We are also in full compliance with all federal and Maryland regulations regarding the safe handling and disposal of medical waste.