6 Ways to Reduce Your Medical Waste

23 Aug 6 Ways to Reduce Your Medical Waste

Easy Ways to Cut Down on Hazardous Waste

Disposing medical waste can be a headache as it is, let alone the growing disposal fees that come along with it. The only logical way to keep your costs down is to reduce your waste volume. If you take the time to familiarize yourself with all of the codes and regulations that
come with waste disposal, you will stay ahead of the costs. Take these next six steps into consideration while working to avoid the common mistake of generating excessive medical waste (and hurting your wallet while you’re at it).

1. Develop a plan for all waste disposal: Having a well thought out and written plan will help reduce confusion about waste disposal, saving companies hundreds of dollars in the process. Many companies make the mistake of relying on employee’s prior knowledge of disposal, which then racks up unnecessary costs. These plans should specify what items are considered to be medical waste and what things are not; such as packaging items come in.
2. Train your employees: Putting time and energy into your employees will always pay off for you in the end. Ensuring your employees are adequately trained will give you peace of mind; small mistakes aren’t happening, which will rack up costs for you overall. Associating costs with actions is a great way to implement new rules and show how seriously these actions should be taken.
3. Restrict access: Restricting access to medical wastebaskets will increase the likelihood of only medical waste going in the basket, opposed to just regular trash to be thrown away. If there’s no secluded area to keep the medical wastebasket, keep a small basket for medical waste and a larger one for the regular waste.
4. Maintain separation between baskets: Going off of the last tip, keeping your two bins separated will reduce confusion when it comes time to throw waste away. A simple step like this makes a huge difference when it comes to reducing medical waste.
5. Use color-coding: Color coding wastebaskets can be extremely helpful to not only employees but also patrons. For example, many offices commonly use red containers for red bag waste and yellow containers for chemotherapy waste. Having bright and visible colors will make it easier to differentiate the different types of wastebaskets, overall reducing medical waste.
6. Post signs: posting strategic signage will help employees differentiate all of the wastebaskets. Visual cues are compelling when it comes to having independent employees. No one wants to be asking or answering questions all day. Signs posted can help answer questions and remind employees of proper waste management.

Conduct periodic waste checks to ensure your medical waste is being disposed of the correct way. The key to reducing your waste is to ensure that all employees are properly trained. For any questions regarding the industries’ Biosecure Waste Solutions services and how we can help with your medical waste, give us a call or visit our contact page.