428 Health Care Waste
Disinfecting Waste
Disinfection means killing germs that cause infection. As much as possible,
health care waste should be disinfected in the same place where it is created.
The most common ways to disinfect are to use chemicals (such as chlorine
bleach, hydrogen peroxide, or other chemicals) or heat (boiling, steaming,
pressure steaming, autoclave, or microwave).
After waste is disinfected, it can be safely buried.
What is sterilizing and what is disinfecting?
Some health care manuals use the word sterilizing rather than disinfecting.
Sterilizing and disinfecting are not the same and many people confuse them.
Sterilizing means killing all of the germs on something. It is very difficult to do this.
Disinfecting means killing enough of the germs on something so that it will not
transmit infection.
Many people use the word sterilization for proper treatment of health care
equipment, and the word disinfection when talking about cleaning floors and other
surfaces with ‘disinfecting cleaners.’ But there are different levels of disinfection.
The treatments described in this book are ‘high-level disinfection’ which means
killing almost all the germs on something. For this reason, we use the word
disinfection for all of the methods in this book.
What wastes need to be disinfected?
Any materials in a health center that are contaminated with blood, body fluids,
or feces, or that have been in close contact with a person with a contagious
disease, need to be disinfected to prevent the spread of infection and disease.
Wastes that need disinfection:
• used needles and
other sharp tools
• blood and other body fluids
• bandages, swabs, and other
wastes that carry body fluids
• other items contaminated with
blood, body fluids, or feces
• feces from people with infectious
disease (such as cholera)
• bedding and bedpans
from all people
Wastes that do not need disinfection:
• body parts
• wastewater from disinfection
and cleaning
• chemicals from disinfection,
cleaning, and laboratory tests
• food waste
• any materials not
contaminated with blood or
body fluids (cardboard, paper,
plastics, glass, metal)
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012