Please find below post from NHS Scotland – Residual waste from households with COVID-19, will still be classified as household waste (and not clinical) but the same principles regarding infection risk and PPE will apply.
NHS Scotland National Services Scotland (NSS) were appointed by Scottish Government to manage healthcare waste produced by or on behalf of NHS Scotland. The healthcare waste management service team is working closely with Health Protection Scotland (HPS). HPS has provided a letter to our contracted suppliers who provide collection, logistics, transfer station and disposal services for healthcare waste from across Scotland. The HPS letter states that clinical waste from COVID-19 patients poses no greater risk than other clinical waste, specifically:
- Clinical waste generated from a person known or suspected to have COVID-19 is orange stream clinical waste;
- For most respiratory diseases, including COVID-19 there is no known risk of airborne transmission from the waste;
- The use of existing PPE is considered sufficient, this should include gloves and hand hygiene should be reinforced.
Within a healthcare environment there is no requirement to treat COVID-19 waste differently from other healthcare wastes. All staff throughout the waste management chain from clinicians involved in the production of the waste, to on-site waste teams should continue to use standard PPE (including gloves). A considerable amount of work has been undertaken to ensure continuity of service at this time.