Learning institutions, corporations and event facilitators are using rapid covid testing. Simply put, it’s a fast way to determine if someone has the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Testing with immediate results helps to contain the spread of the disease, especially in large group settings. It also keeps the public safe as we navigate through the pandemic and reopen schools, businesses and events.
With rapid Covid testing in full swing, many are wondering how to properly dispose of the rapid covid testing waste, either at home, or in an office or school setting.
Check Your Covid Test Kit Disposal Instructions
Instructions for at home Emergency Use Authorization test kits often say to put the materials right in the trash. However, standard operating procedures for businesses and schools may be more cautious. Many recommend to dispose of the Covid testing waste as infectious waste. This includes things like the nasal testing swabs and testing result containers. What also goes in the biohazard container is any personal protecting equipment (gloves, gowns) that has blood, or bodily fluids with visible blood, on it. Non-contaminated PPE should go in the trash. Additionally, packaging material can go in recycling.
State health and environmental agencies require infectious waste be disposed of at a licensed infectious waste treatment facility.
Infectious Waste Disposal – Pickup or Mailback?
Companies that don’t have a local pickup service for their sharps and infectious waste may turn to medical waste mailback kits. Why? Because they are a simple and cost effective way to document and dispose of sharps and other infectious materials. Check your local state regulations to see if a MERI mailback kit could work for your infectious waste disposal.
MERI’s kits have DOT and USPS approval for the disposal of regulated waste disposal (UN3291). They are used nationwide for the disposal of sharps waste. Plus, many states also allow them for infectious disposal too.
All of MERI’s kits come with a:
- Leak-proof, puncture-resistant PGII rated container
- Thick plastic bag and tie
- 2 cardboard boxes to contain the material
- Prepaid return shipping kit
- Manifest noting proper treatment and destruction of the waste at MERI’s licensed infectious waste treatment facility
MERI Has Your Solution for Biohazard Waste Disposal
We make Covid sharps vaccine waste collection easy for you with our mailback kits. Place your biohazard waste in one of our containers and then mail the prepaid shipping box back to MERI. These kits are available nationwide and are USPS and DOT certified for transport back to our facility for proper treatment and disposal. Check your local state regulations before ordering.
CDC guidance currently states “When disposing of waste generated from SARS-CoV-2 point-of-care testing, laboratories and testing sites should treat all waste from suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patient specimens and kit components as biohazardous waste.”
