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56 Tasks for the Veterinary Assistant

humans, animals, and the environment. Both are further
divided; non‐hazardous into recyclable or non‐recy-
clable, and hazardous into medical, chemical, or bio-
logic waste. Each are handled in specific ways.
Non‐hazardous recyclable waste is usually paper, plas-
tics, and glass. Many municipalities have “single stream”
recycling programs, meaning everything goes into one
recycling bin. However, in a veterinary facility not all
waste is safe to recycle. To know what to recycle, compare
the waste generated in a home to the same types of waste
that is generated in a hospital. If the waste is the same as
in a home it can go into the recycling bin. For example,
water and soda bottles, cardboard boxes, magazines, and
paper. If it is different from what is found in a home, the
decision needs to be made based upon the item. A guide-
line is to ask if it is safe for humans, animals, and the
environment. For example, an empty or half used bag of
Ringer’s lactate solution in a plastic bag needs to be
thrown away. Ask yourself, is it recyclable? Yes, it is plastic,
the solution is non‐hazardous to humans, animals, and
the environment, so it is a safe product to throw into the
recycle bin. An example of hazardous waste could be an
outdated bottle of formaldehyde. Ask yourself, is it recy-
clable? Yes, the bottle is glass. However, the contents are FIGURE 4.1 Sharps container.
extremely toxic to living tissues and the environment, so
it is hazardous and not recyclable. It will need to be dis- the regular trash as they can poke or cut the custodial
posed of as a chemical hazard, which we will discuss staff when taking the trash out.
shortly. If in doubt about an item’s suitability for recy- Chemical wastes are those items that are of danger to
cling, ask someone or look it up on the internet. living beings and the environment. The veterinary clinic
has a few of these items. For example, formaldehyde
used to “fix” tissues for diagnostic analysis, radiographic
TIP BOX 4.1
fixer solution, chemotherapy medications, pesticides,
When dealing with hazardous materials, select the appro- anesthetic gas, and some vaccines. Product bottles and
priate personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect outdated products need to be disposed of properly.
yourself from injury. That may mean that they are placed into a special con-
tainer, picked up and incinerated, or, in the case of the
Mechanical, chemical, and biologic hazards are those fixer solution, picked by a company that recycles the sil-
items that will cause harm to humans, animals, and the ver. The MSDS will tell you how to dispose of the prod-
environment. Examples of mechanical hazards are uct so when in doubt check those. If a chemical is
needles and broken glass contaminated with body fluids. spilled, an absorbable material like kitty litter is poured
These items are usually captured in specific containers on top of the spill, swept into a dustpan, and dumped
for “sharps” (Figure 4.1). The container is usually red into the trash which must be taken to the dumpster
and made of a heavy puncture‐proof plastic. It is designed immediately. Chemotherapy medications, and anything
to hold needles and syringes that have been used for that has come into contact with them, are placed into a
giving injections or drawing blood. It is used to protect yellow biohazard container which is picked up for
workers from accidently being poked by needles that incineration.
have an infectious organism or agent. Needles come Biologic hazards are anything with blood, feces, or
with a cap but it is advised to never recap a needle once urine on or in them, microbiologic cultures, laboratory
the cap is taken off. After an injection or blood draw the samples, vaccine bottles, isolation waste, and patient tis-
syringe is placed directly into the sharps container and sues or in some cases entire bodies if what killed them
the needle cap disposed of with the syringe packaging was zoonotic. Biohazard waste should be emptied into
into the waste can. Some municipalities require glass- bags that are marked “biohazard” and are picked up for
ware such as used microscope slides and any blood col- incineration. Newsprint that has been used in kennels is
lection tubes to be contained in a sharps container too. not recycled; it can be put into the trash for the landfill.
The containers are picked up and incinerated instead of This is no different from putting human diapers in the
going to the landfill. These items are never thrown into landfill.