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Medical Waste Disposal
How to dispose of your household medical waste
Dialysis Waste
People on home dialysis treatment incorrectly place a significant amount of peritoneal dialysis waste into council recycling services, particularly fluid bags and tubing.
No products used in dialysis treatment in the home are suitable for council recycling services apart from the clean cardboard packaging that may be flattened and recycled.
How to dispose of your dialysis waste correctly:
- Outer envelopes should be disposed of as household garbage.
- Peritoneal dialysis fluid bags and tubing sets – bags should be slit and drained to sewer, and bags and tubing sets then wrapped and disposed of as household garbage.
- The dialyser and bloodlines are contaminated with blood and should never be placed into council recycling services. After flushing with saline this equipment should be sealed, then double-bagged and disposed of as household garbage.
- Haemodialysis patients on home dialysis are provided with a regular supply of sharps containers by the dialysis unit, and are instructed to return full containers to their nearest public hospital for disposal. Sharps containers should never be placed into household garbage or recycling.
Colostomy Bag Waste
Colostomy bags, if empty, cleaned and bagged, can be disposed of through your normal garbage service.
Syringes / Sharps Disposal
Sharps must not be placed in your recycling bin or garbage bin. Please dispose of your sharps at authorised collection point such as Mona Vale Hospital Emergency Department.
- Your sharps must be secured in a strong puncture resistant container, such as an Australian Standard Sharps container.
- For more information on disposing of sharps, visit communitysharps or contact the Needle Cleanup Hotline on 1800 633 353.
Unwanted Medicines
The Return Unwanted Medicines Group recommends recycling all out of date and unwanted medicines to reduce the risk of medicines polluting our waterways and also to reduce the risk of poisoning our children. Unwanted medicines can be taken to any pharmacy in Australia.
X-Ray Films
Drop off any unwanted X-Ray films to Siltech Mechanical Services, Units 5-6, 15 Rodborough Rd, Frenchs Forest between 9am and 4pm Monday to Friday. For further information please contact them on 02 9453 0811.
Updated: 14 April 2011