According to a survey done in 2017, which is conducted on a large sample of Americans by Consumer ­Reports, about 30% of Americans did not clean out their medicine cabinets for over a year and nearly 20% have not done so in the last 3 years. Additionally, most Americans do not know how to clean their medicine cabinets correctly. Those unused and expired medicines not only add clutter to our closets but also may cause […]

Good news: the COVID-19 vaccine schedule is moving along in the U.S. and expected to pick up substantially very soon. Over 80 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered from December 2020 until mid-March 2021, and the Biden administration is aiming to see that three million vaccines are administered per day by April. But a rapid ramp-up will mean a tsunami of vaccine-related waste, mainly needles. There are similarities in how this material and other […]

An unintended consequence of COVID-19 safety procedures has been a surge in trash, from face masks to gloves to, now, the discarded syringes and needles from COVID-19 vaccines. If laid end to end, the needles from the number of vaccine doses needed to inoculate the entire U.S. population—about 660 million—would create enough waste to wrap around the Earth 1.8 times, according to OnSite Waste Technologies, a medical waste disposal company. It’s certainly worthwhile trash to […]

Tanveer Adyel began to notice the trash in March. This was early in the COVID-19 pandemic. He saw latex gloves and blue, disposable masks littering his garden and street. Other types of personal protective equipment, or PPE, including face shields, were also among the trash. Soon, he spotted lots of thin plastic bags from grocery stores. Those bags had been banned in his state the previous year. Adyel is an engineer at Monash University in […]

The increase in the need for personal protective equipment (PPE) and its use during the COVID-19 pandemic has produced a corresponding burden on the other end: a rise in medical waste as institutions dispose of gowns, gloves, masks, face shields and shoe covers that have been exposed to the virus. Are there different waste disposal requirements for COVID-19-contaminated PPE? How should your pharmacy and institution be handling this kind of waste? “While we have not […]

As the country ramps up with administering the SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine, questions are beginning to arise about disposing of waste from vaccine administration. The following represent general recommendations for managing waste from administering the SAR-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine. In general, disposal of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine related wastes should follow the same processes for other vaccine related wastes. However, not all states are the same – if a state has more stringent requirements than described below, follow […]

The National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA) announced Dec. 2 that it has sent letters to the nation’s governors urging them to follow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) on including waste and recycling industry personnel as a part of their states’ vaccine distribution plans, including specialty medical waste workers who provide collection and management services within healthcare settings. “The waste and recycling industry provides a critical service […]

Proper medical waste management is necessary for a medical facility. It aims for a sterile and safe environment for doctors and patients. Proper management also ensures that medical substances won’t pose a risk to our environment. Many third-party companies provide medical facilities with appropriate waste management, implementing specific protocols to ensure safe disposal of such substances. Abiding these protocols is crucial as it ensures that the facility maintains a healthy and safe working environment for […]