Is a pickup or mailback service better for regulated medical waste collection and disposal?
Having a medical waste disposal company come to your facility with a truck is often what most customers think of when collecting and disposing of medical waste. But did you know there is another option? One that could be a more cost-effective and convenient way to dispose of your sharps waste other than having a driver do a pickup from your facility. It’s a solution offered by MERI and certified by the US postal service called a medical waste mailback kit.
How do you determine if medical waste pickup or a mailback kit is your best service option?
A Mailback Kit is a good option for you if:
- It takes you a while to fill a sharps container
- You only generate regulated medical waste, i.e., sharps, red bag waste, trace chemo
- You generate less than 20lbs of medical waste each month
- You don’t want to be tied to a contract
- A US postal carrier regularly stops at your location, or there’s a USPS location nearby
- You don’t want the hassle or the added cost of coordinating a pickup
- You like to get rid of sharps as soon as the containers are full
A Pick-up Service is a good option for you if:
- You generate more than 20lbs of medical waste each month
- You also have hazardous waste, pharmaceutical waste, chemicals, pathological waste, or universal waste to dispose of in addition to your regulated medical waste.
- Your company uses a PO box instead of a US postal delivery address
- You prefer a regularly scheduled pick up
- A driver can easily access your facility to pick up your waste
- Service contracts are important to you
But what about the cost?
While it varies by location, amount of waste you have for collection, and frequency of pickups due to your state’s regulations, a rough estimation for 10 pounds of waste would cost you approximately $70 for a mailback kit and roughly $150 for a pickup service. Additionally, some medical waste collection companies charge a monthly fee rather than just a fee for each pickup needed, like MERI’s policy. So be sure to factor in that monthly fee x 12 to determine your annual pickup costs if using a company other than MERI.
Small waste generators use medical waste mailback kits
By evaluating our cost estimates above, you can see why small waste generators, such as dental offices, vet clinics, and tattoo and permanent makeup artists, find that a medical waste mailback kit is their most economical and convenient solution for disposing of their sharps and infectious waste.
Our medical waste mailback kits contain everything you need for compliant medical waste disposal by mail. They are USPS and DOT certified and come with a rigid biohazard container, shipping materials, return postage, and a manifest number that tracks the cradle-to-grave process of the waste associated with each kit. Once your container is full, place it back in the included shipping materials and box and drop it off with your postal carrier.
Check out the variety and sizes of sharps, trace chemo, and larger capacity biohazard waste container mailback kits we offer at MERI’s online store: https://www.meriinc.com/store/.
