Red Bags and Trash—What's the Big Deal?

Keeping our patients and each other safe calls for collaboration, commitment and attention to detail—right down to our trash. Skipping a step here and there when you’re busy and tossing medical waste or biohazard material into regular trash may not feel like the biggest crisis you faced today, but it is actually a very big deal.

Mixing medical waste and biohazard materials with regular trash contaminates our work areas and increases the risk for infection; lowering hospital acquired infections is an important goal that helps us provide quality care.

Plus, regulatory agencies like DEQ, OSHA and VOSH have guidelines in place for disposing of medical waste that we must follow. If we don’t, we face hefty fines that can also keep us from getting needed accreditations. What’s more, when red bags and items with biohazard symbols are placed in regular trash containers, we have to remove the items before the landfill will accept our trash—that’s a nasty job for your co-workers.

What To Know

In health care, red bags represent biohazard materials, even if the bag is empty or doesn’t contain actual medical waste. All red bags and biohazard items must be placed in the proper Regulated Medical Waste (RMW) stream. These are red bins, boxes or sharps.

Remember:

• Red bags are for items saturated (visible and can be transferred) with blood or other potentially infectious materials. Some examples include bandages, gauze, personal protective equipment (gloves, gowns, goggles, plastic tubing).
• Never put red bags in regular trash, even if the contents of the red bag don’t fit the description above.
• Any item with a biohazard symbol on it (below), regardless of color or being empty, is considered RMW and must be disposed of in an appropriate biohazard waste receptacle. Items with this symbol are never to be put in regular trash.
  
  

What To Do

Using the reminders above, work together and with our RMW and trash vendors to make sure you’re using red bags for medical waste and placing them in red bins, boxes or sharps. If you see an issue with trash or RMW, enter a SafeWatch reporting event on Inside Carilion or call 7safe.

Disposing of trash and medical waste properly shows we’re being good stewards of our resources and demonstrates our commitment to our patients, community and each other. Make sure you're taking the time to live our values!

If you have questions, contact emergency_management_and_life_safety@carilionclinic.org.