Industries We Serve….is a series highlighting the different types of businesses’ MERI services, such as Medical Waste Disposal for Veterinary Practices. MERI collects and disposes biohazard waste like sharps and infectious waste as well as hazardous and non-hazardous materials.
Types of Veterinary Clinic Medical Waste
Veterinary clinics may produce several types of medical waste that require proper disposal.
Infectious materials, like sharps and pathological waste, may be generated when caring for animals. Due to their biological risk, they pose an environmental danger. Additionally, hazardous waste, such as bulk chemotherapy drugs and expired hand sanitizers, requires special collection and disposal due to their chemical risk.
If the waste can cause illness or injury to humans, the environment, or the animals you are caring for, then manage it safely and compliantly. Train all veterinarian staff on the proper storage, handling, and disposal of these types of waste.
Vaccinations, lab work, surgeries, and medications are ways that veterinary clinics produce waste that potentially causes injury to humans, the environment, or animals.
Some of the most common regulated medical waste types are:
- Sharps Waste: needles, syringes, suture needles, scalpels
- Animal Waste: animal carcasses, body parts, organs, bedding, and related wastes contaminated by bodily fluid
- Hazardous Waste: Chemotherapy, or other pharmaceutical waste and expired hand sanitizers
- Vials
- Bloody Gauze
- Vaccine waste
- Tissue samples/surgical specimens
Medical Waste Disposal for Veterinary Practices
Whether at a vet clinic, animal hospital or pet resort, veterinary practices generate medical waste, and need to compliantly dispose of it.
As in other medical settings, a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM), must abide by federal and state infectious waste disposal regulations. Small and large animal vets, specialists, technicians and other staff members working around biohazard materials must all follow safe disposal guidelines.
“We use MERI for our veterinary sharps waste disposal. They are very reliable and flexible to our needs.”
How to Handle Medical Waste Disposal for Veterinarian Clinics
The easiest and most cost-effective way to dispose of your vet clinic waste comes down to what and how much your facility collects during the month.
Veterinary hospitals and larger vet clinics that produce more than 20 lbs of waste each month often depend on medical waste disposal providers to collect their waste. Likewise, it is vital to have a qualified provider when dealing with more than one type of waste for collection and disposal to meet state and federal guidelines.
Therefore, find a collection company licensed to retrieve everything at once, from infectious waste, like sharps, to hazardous waste, like bulk chemotherapy or pharmaceutical waste, to universal waste items such as fluorescent bulbs and lithium batteries. With the right collection company, you will only have to coordinate one pick-up time and deal with one invoice.
On the other hand, small waste generators, such as pet resorts, may find that using a waste disposal pick-up service may be most costly than what they need. A medical waste mailback kit is a simple and cost-effective solution for smaller clinics that generate less than a container full of waste a month. Using these kits not only provides the biohazard collection container, but also eliminates the expense of a pick-up.
With a mailback kit, it’s as simple as placing the waste in the appropriate container(s) within the kit, and then boxing it up and sending it back with your postal carrier when it’s full. There’s no need to coordinate a pick-up. In addition, using approved medical waste mailback kits is a convenient and compliant solution for veterinarians who produce a small quantity of infectious waste during the month.
To ensure the best handling of your medical waste, partner with a knowledgeable medical waste disposal company, such as MERI.
