Healthcare and related wastes: how to classify
Waste codes for common healthcare and related wastes.
You must classify the waste your business produces before it is collected, disposed of or recovered.
You must do this to identify:
- if the waste is hazardous or not
- which controls apply to the movement of the waste - this is to prevent harm to people and the environment
(*) An asterisk at the end of a code means the waste is hazardous.
Offensive waste
‘Offensive waste’ is non-clinical waste that’s non-infectious and does not contain pharmaceutical or chemical substances, but may be unpleasant to anyone who comes into contact with it.
| Examples | Waste status | Human healthcare | Animal healthcare | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Healthcare offensive waste | Outer dressings and protective clothing like masks, gowns and gloves that are contaminated with body fluids, and sterilised laboratory waste | Non-hazardous | 18 01 04 | 18 02 03 |
| Municipal offensive waste | Hygiene waste and sanitary protection like nappies and incontinence pads | Non-hazardous | 20 01 99 | 20 01 99 |
You must segregate healthcare offensive waste from both clinical and mixed municipal wastes.
If you’ve produced more than 7kg of municipal offensive waste, or have more than one bag in a collection period, you must segregate it from any mixed municipal waste.
If you’ve produced less, you can dispose of your municipal offensive waste in your mixed municipal waste (‘black bag’). Use classification code 20 03 01.
Plaster and similar wastes
Most plaster waste is non-infectious.
It should be kept separately from any plaster waste that’s infectious, which must be placed in the bagged infectious clinical waste stream.
| Waste status | Human healthcare | Animal healthcare | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plaster and similar wastes, for example from dentistry and fracture clinics | Non-hazardous | 18 01 04 | 18 02 03 |
Waste medicines
A medicine is considered to be cytotoxic or cytostatic for waste classification purposes if it’s any of the following:
- acutely toxic
- carcinogenic
- mutagenic
- toxic for reproduction
| Waste status | Human healthcare | Animal healthcare | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cytotoxic and cytostatic medicines | Hazardous | 18 01 08* | 18 02 07* |
| Other medicines | Non-hazardous | 18 01 09 | 18 02 08 |
Household medicines returned to a community pharmacy should be coded as follows:
- cytotoxic and cytostatic medicines: 20 01 31*
- other medicines: 20 01 32
Sharps and related waste
| Waste status | Human healthcare | Animal healthcare | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cytotoxic and cytostatic contaminated | Hazardous | 18 01 08* and 18 01 03* | 18 02 07* and 18 02 02* |
| Other medicinally contaminated | Hazardous | 18 01 03* and 18 01 09 | 18 02 02* and 18 02 08 |
| Non-medicinally contaminated | Hazardous | 18 01 03* | 18 02 02* |
Anatomical waste
| Waste status | Human healthcare | Animal healthcare | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Not chemically preserved - infectious | Hazardous | 18 01 03* | 18 02 02* |
| Not chemically preserved - non-infectious | Non-hazardous | 18 01 02 | 18 02 03 |
| Chemically preserved - infectious or non-infectious | Hazardous | 18 01 06* and 18 01 02*/03 | 18 02 05* and 18 02 02*/03 |
Bagged clinical waste
You must only put waste items that are both infectious and chemically contaminated (for example some samples and diagnostic kits) in the yellow bag waste stream.
| Waste status | Human healthcare | Animal healthcare | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infectious clinical waste (no chemicals or pharmaceuticals) - orange bag | Hazardous | 18 01 03* | 18 02 02* |
| Infectious clinical waste - yellow bag | Hazardous | 18 01 03* and 18 01 06* | 18 02 02* and 18 02 05* |
Laboratory chemicals and photochemicals
You must classify photochemicals and film, including X-ray related products, with codes from chapter 9 of the waste code section in the technical guidance on waste.
| Waste status | Human healthcare | Animal healthcare | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Other chemicals - hazardous | Hazardous | 18 01 06* | 18 02 05* |
| Other chemicals - non-hazardous | Non-hazardous | 18 01 07 | 18 02 06 |
How to classify other wastes
Check the guidance on the safe management of healthcare waste for more information about classifying clinical and healthcare waste.
Or check the technical guidance on waste, which lists all of the waste codes and how to apply them.
Get advice from a specialist waste contractor if you are not sure what code to use for your waste.
For more information, contact the Environment Agency.
General enquiries
National Customer Contact Centre
PO Box 544
Rotherham
S60 1BY
Email enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk
Telephone 03708 506 506
Telephone from outside the UK (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm GMT) +44 (0) 114 282 5312
Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.