Is Your Business Compliant with the Disposal of Sanitary Waste?

Does your business comply with the legal regulations regarding disposal of sanitary waste?

Our latest blog tackles the question of whether your business complies to legislation when it comes to the disposal of sanitary waste produced on your premises.  

One of the things we aim to do here on the Insights page is to educate our readers and subscribers. Initial are the Experts in Hygiene, and we absolutely love talking about the subject hygiene.

We’ve found that many business managers and owners are ill-informed about the legal requirements for disposing of sanitary waste. So, as the experts, we want to educate and remind you of your obligations under the current South African legislation.

Businesses produce large volumes of sanitary waste

Whilst the law does not actually specify that employers have to provide sanitary bins, it does specify how sanitary waste must be disposed of in the following legislation:

• The National Environmental Management: Waste Act, 59 of 2008.
• The National Regulations on Health Care Risk Waste (NEMWA, act 59 of 2008)

Businesses produce large volumes of sanitary waste. They should be asking themselves whether it is being disposed of in compliance with regulations laid out above. They also need to know what the risks are to the business if it is not disposed of correctly.

How should sanitary waste be disposed?

The Occupational Health & Safety Act, 85 of 1993 states that commercial or industrial volumes of sanitary waste may not enter the general municipal waste stream. This means commercial sanitary waste must therefore follow the requirements for Healthcare Risk Waste (HRW).  

Only domestic sanitary waste can go via municipal rubbish trucks to a municipal landfill. The volume of waste produced by an office or business has to be handled differently.  

This is because sanitary waste is a blood product. It may contain bloodborne pathogens such as HIV and Hepatitis B. If not disposed of properly, it could lead to serious health and environmental risks. It is this fact that puts it into the Healthcare Risk Waste (HRW) category.

NEMWA, act 59 of 2008 requires that HRW be autoclaved and then shredded, or pre-treated to inert status. Sanitary waste must be rendered harmless before it is disposed of at a hazardous landfill site by a licensed waste disposal contractor.  

If sanitary waste is dumped at uncertified landfills, or in an untreated state, it poses a significant risk to workers on those sites. There is also the very real risk of groundwater contamination should rainfall on untreated sanitary waste.

What are the implications of non-compliance?

So does your office or workplace comply with these regulations? In order to answer that question, you would need to look at how sanitary waste is currently handled on your premises.

If your workplace doesn’t provide sanitary bins for employees, the risk of colleagues flushing their sanitary waste down the toilet increases. Tampons are a major cause of plumbing issues as they cause blockages ,which are costly to fix. They also land up on beaches, creating a horrible pollution problem.

If colleagues are disposing of sanitary waste into regular waste bins, your daily cleaners are at risk of cross-contamination and infection.

It also means that your business is in violation of the Occupational Health & Safety Act . This is because daily cleaners have to dispose of these dressings in the general waste, which is prohibited.

Ask your service provider how they dispose of sanitary waste

If your business does provide sanitary bins for employees, it’s worth asking your service provider how they dispose of sanitary waste. If they are a certified waste carrier, they should be able to provide you with a certificate of disposal. This is to put your mind at ease that waste is being disposed of according to the regulations mentioned above.

Initial is a registered Waste Carrier and will provide you with a certificate of disposal. Our feminine hygiene service is a proactive and multi-layered approach to the management of sanitary waste.

If you are concerned about compliance in your business, contact us for your Ultimate Guide to Safe Sanitary Waste Disposal here.