Posted By Gareth Bryan Assuming that you are not a hospital or doctors surgery or such like and are not into mass murder of employees then the normal waste route is acceptable. As a precaution to protect cleaning staff who may be emptying waste bins it is advisable to place the used dressing into a closed plastic bag.

Posted By Lumpy I can't see your local small garage separating the odd plaster and disposing of it as clinical waste, however Clinical waste is defined in regulation 1(2) of The Controlled Waste Regulations 1992 (SI1992/588) as meaning: "(a) any waste which consists wholly or partly of human or animal tissue, blood, other body fluids, excretion, drugs or other pharmaceutical products, swabs or dressings, or syringes, needles or other sharp instruments, being waste which unless rendered safe may prove hazardous to any person coming into contact with it". This seems to indicate that a plaster with a bit of blood on it is clinical waste and must be disposed of NOT with normal rubish .... but how many people do this ? Lumpy.

Posted By Michelle Wilson We're in an industrial environment, so don't (thankfully) generate much volume of plasters, dressings etc but we do get a few. We have a clinical waste disposal bin and an arrangement with our hygiene service that the waste is collected along with our sanitary disposal bins.

Posted By John Webster Lumpy, the important phrase here is "....being waste which unless rendered safe may prove hazardous to any person coming into contact with it." Soiled plasters and dressings from people who are "in the community" are unlikely to be infectious. They should be placed in a bag before putting into the black bag and/or domestic waste bin. This would also apply to gloves and swabs used by first aiders etc. On no account should special coloured clinical waste bags be used as at best this could cause confusion to the waste handler. As Gareth correctly pointed out, unless you are health care premises you really do not need to concern yourself with clinical waste issues.

Posted By MichaelM The horse also told me that if there is a suggestion that the plaster, swab, fdressing etc. has been in contact with someone's blood who has e.g. HIV, Hep A, Hep B, Hep C or other hazardous blood borne pathogen then you need to take special precautions. If this is covered in a risk assessment andyou will be unlikely to encounter anything like this then you are OK and don't need to heat treat, incinerate or autoclave. Off to feed the horse now.

Posted By Sarah O'Brien Recently completed first aid at work, there they tell you that the contents of your first aid box should contain amongst the usual a small yellow clinical waste bag, this is also tested to make sure you remember where to put the plasters, dressings etc. So where do you put the small yellow bag??