Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to common questions about medical waste, sharps disposal, packaging, and our services in Oklahoma and Texas.

Here you’ll find answers to the most frequently asked questions about regulated medical waste disposal. If you don’t see your question answered below, feel free to contact us.

The Medical Waste Tracking Act of 1988 broadly defined medical waste as any solid waste that is generated in the diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of human beings or animals. It excluded hazardous waste and household waste.

Specifically, medical waste includes (but is not limited to):
  • Items that are freely dripping liquid or semi-liquid blood or “potentially infectious materials”
  • Human blood and blood products
  • Hemodialysis waste
  • Sharps waste
  • Surgery or autopsy tissue, organs, or body parts (pathological wastes)
  • Cultures or stocks of infectious agents
  • And many other items listed in federal guidelines.
Administrators may choose not to define certain items as medical waste if they pose no current or future hazard.

  • Amniotic fluids
  • Blood and its components
  • Cerebrospinal and synovial fluid
  • Dialysate and dialysis waste
  • Pericardial and pleural fluid
  • Peritoneal fluid
  • Saliva in dental procedures
  • Semen
  • Vaginal secretions

In general, “biohazard” describes any biological material that may present a potential risk to health (29 CFR 1910.1030).

Always check your facility’s policies. Generally, these items DO go into a red bag:
  • Visibly bloody gloves, plastic tubing, or personal protective equipment (PPE)
  • Gauze, bandages or other items saturated with blood
  • Securely closed disposable sharps containers

  1. Line your container with the red bag prior to use.
  2. Tie the bag when full – hand-tie by gathering and twisting the neck.
  3. Secure the lid on the container. Red bags must not be visible once closed.
  4. Check markings – ensure federal biohazard symbols and regulated medical waste markings are present and comply with state regulations.

Sharps include needles, lancets, syringes, broken glass, scalpels, culture slides, broken capillary tubes, exposed dental wires, and more. Laboratory slides and cover slips contaminated with infectious agents also qualify.

  1. Place sharps in a puncture-resistant container designed for sharps waste. Never put loose sharps in any other container.
  2. Securely close the container.
  3. Place the sealed sharps container inside the regulated medical waste container for pickup.

  • SQG: Generally 3 or fewer professionals and generates less than 50 pounds of waste per month.
  • LQG: Generates more than 50 pounds of waste per month.

Keep a small spill clean-up kit within one hundred feet of any area where infectious waste is managed (recommended, though not always required).

Large Quantity Generators (more than 50 pounds per month) must submit annual reports no later than 90 days after the end of the calendar year. Reports must include waste descriptions, weights, transporter details, and disposal locations.

Regulated medical waste is any solid waste generated in the diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of human beings or animals, or in related research or biological production. It does not include hazardous or radioactive waste.

Medical waste and infectious waste generally refer to the same materials. Some states and agencies use the terms interchangeably.

You must keep records of your manifests for at least 3 years.

Anything that has been in contact with blood or bodily fluids that could potentially cause harm. Always follow your facility’s policies and procedures.

Needles, syringes, scalpels, slides, cover slips, pipettes, blood tubes, and any item that is sharp or has the potential to become sharp. Sharps must be placed in rigid, puncture-resistant approved containers.

Common regulated medical waste includes:
  • Blood & blood products
  • Items saturated with blood
  • Other potentially infectious body fluids
  • Cultures and stocks of microbiological agents
  • Sharps
  • Expired non-hazardous medications
  • Trace chemotherapy waste
  • Anatomical wastes (small)

Each facility should maintain its own written policy based on federal, state, and local regulations.

Still have questions?

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