Biological Waste

Liquid Biohazardous Waste Disposal

Many liquid medical/biohazardous wastes (e.g., cell cultures or blood) that are not chemical hazardous waste or radioactive waste can be sufficiently decontaminated and then poured down a sanitary sewer drain (e.g., laboratory sink drain).
Add household bleach to the liquid to be decontaminated until a 10% (1:10) concentration and allow bleach to remain in contact with liquid waste for a minimum of 20 minutes to decontaminate biohazardous liquid.
Once the liquid has been decontaminated it can be poured down the drain.

Solid biohazardous waste includes Risk Group 2 contaminated materials such as gloves, cell culture plates, paper products, pipettes, cell culture plates and any other solid material contaminated with infectious agents. In addition it includes Risk Group 1 contaminated material from Recombinant DNA procedures. All solid medical waste is picked up by EH&S and treated offsite for disposal.
Inside a lab, deposit regulated medical into a container lined with a RED biohazardous bag. Deposit unregulated biohazardous waste into a container lined with a CLEAR biohazardous bag.
Tie or tape the bag closed and carry it in the lab container to the pickup container.
Seal the biohazard bag closed (tape, rubber band, etc.). Carry the biohazard bag to the nearest medical
waste pickup container (Figure 1). The biohazard bag must be secondarily contained during transport in a labeled biohazard container with a lid.
Remove the biohazard bag and deposit it in the pickup container. The pickup container must be lined with a red biohazard bag. Close the lid on the pickup container after adding the waste.
Fill out the Medical Waste Accumulation Log, which should be affixed to the lid of each gray pickup container.

Sharps waste includes needles, syringes, blades (razors, scalpels) and glass slides, cover slips, Pasteur pipettes, or any other object with a sharp edge contaminated with medical/biohazardous waste. These must be placed in a sharps container.
Dispose of sharps in a rigid, puncture resistant sharps container.
Sharps containers must be labeled with one of the following labels: “Sharps Waste”, “Biohazard,” including the biohazard symbol or “Unregulated Sharps”.

Sharps containers must be placed in the laboratory near the area of sharps waste generation. NEVER fill sharps containers past the fill line. As a best management practice, sharps containers should not be more than two-thirds full.
Close the container when full and do not add any more waste or force any sharps into the container.
Follow the procedures here for how to dispose of sharps waste from medical waste areas, unregulated biohazardous waste areas, and Unregulated Non-biohazardous Areas. Refer to section 3 of the Medical and Biohazardous Waste Generator’s Guide for more details and for how to dispose of sharps waste contaminated with radioactive and/or chemical materials and from a Radiological Work Area