Selected Compliance and Industry News

Healthcare Waste - A Serious Problem for Global Health - NLM 2023 Report — 2023-08-09

Medical waste amounts have increased dramatically over the last 30 years, and health facilities around the world are producing more waste than ever before. The US generates the most healthcare waste (HCW) on a per bed basis (8.4–10.7 kg/bed/day). Other conclusions include: COVID caused a large increase in HCW worldwide. [ full text ]

FDA adopts new sterilization standard to support switch from ethylene oxide — 2023-07-26

The regulator said it added the alternative sterilization method to its database in response to pressure to reduce EtO use and to support supply chain resiliency. [ full text ]

Pyrolysis to Treat/Dispose Medical Waste: How Does it Fair Against Alternative Methods? — 2023-07-27

There’s a lot of industry chatter around pyrolysis. Is it an efficient and safe way to transform waste, and what types of waste for which industries? In this Q&A Dan Nienhauser, co-founder and CEO Stellar3, discusses pyrolysis’ role in managing medical waste—a fast-growing stream. U.S. hospitals produce almost six million tons of medical waste annually, calling for solutions. [ full text ]

EPA Clarifies Regulatory Status of Spent Lithium Batteries — 2023-06-13

The purpose of this memorandum is to clarify how the hazardous waste regulations for universal waste and recycling apply to lithium-ion batteries. The bottom line is that most spent batteries are Hazardous Waste (D001 and D003) and can be recycled as Universal Waste. [ full text ]