In California, hospitals and other healthcare facilities are subject to specific laws related to waste management. These regulations aim to manage medical waste, protect public health, and ensure environmental sustainability. To improve clarity on where items go, the UCSF Health Sustainability department is rolling out new waste signage for the landfill and recycling bins. Over the next few weeks, you might see one of our team members replacing the signage in your workspace.
Some key changes in the landfill signage address protected health information (PHI) and universal waste:
PHI such as patient wristbands, medical records, and after-visit summaries should never be disposed of in these waste bins and should instead be placed in a shred container. If your unit does not have a shred container, please view the available bin sizes and request a new bin form from marianne.torres@ucsf.edu.
Universal waste, such as batteries and electronics, should never be disposed of in the landfill bin and need to be treated as hazardous waste. Batteries can be disposed of by contacting ehs@ucsf.edu or dropped off at one of their many drop-off locations. For more information on battery disposal, visit the EH&S battery disposal page. Working and non-working electronics can be disposed of for free at the monthly e-waste disposal events. If you are unable to come to the e-waste events and are located in a West San Francisco Bay site, please contact logistics@ucsf.edu and schedule a pickup.
In addition to PHI and universal waste, other streams that are regulated and need extra care and attention include pharmaceutical, hazardous, sharps, chemo, and biohazardous waste (including soiled PPE items). EH&S has recently deployed new signage to further clarify where regulated waste is supposed to go. View and download the new regulated waste signage.
New signage will also be deployed to all recycling bins. A few key changes included the removal of two items: Sanitizing wipes and hand sanitizer containers.
These containers often have a few drops of residual hazardous liquid solution that deems them non-recyclable.
If the container holds alcohol-based solution products, dispose of the empty container in the black hazardous waste bin.
If the container holds non-alcohol-based solution products, dispose of the empty container in the blue hazardous waste bin.
Like landfill bins, recycling bins should never contain universal, PPE, PHI, or biohazardous waste.
What you can do to help:
- Follow the signage and ensure compliance with your unit.
- Request a waste training for municipal waste management (landfill, recycling, compost) by emailing healthsustainability@ucsf.edu.
- Request waste training for regulated waste streams from EH&S by emailing waste@ucsf.edu.
- Conduct a quick walkthrough and inspect your signage. If it does not have a “2024 version” text, please request the updated version by emailing healthsustainability@ucsf.edu.
- Note: the sustainability team will begin deploying the signage in December 2024. Please allow 4-5 weeks for us to reach your unit. If you have any questions regarding this change or sustainable practices at UCSF Health, contact healthsustainability@ucsf.edu