Health Technical Memorandum 07-01: Safe management of healthcare waste

This guidance (HTM 07-01) was produced and updated in partnership with Defra and the Department for Transport and with the full support and cooperation of the Regulators (Environment Agency and the Health and Safety Executive) and the devolved administrations. It provides an update to Health Technical Memorandum 07-01 first published in 2006. The key areas of change include: updates to legislation, specifically for environmental permitting and transport/carriage regulations a focus on the waste hierarchy through procurement practices, and the elimination, minimisation, recycling and recovery of waste a drive to address the carbon impact related to waste through resource efficiency, transport impacts and disposal arrangements the integration of new sector guides on GPs and dental practices as well as incorporating Health Technical Memorandum 07-06: ‘Disposal of pharmaceutical waste in community pharmacies’ as a sector guide (see the ‘Community pharmacies’ sector guide) a focus on practical advice and examples for classifying waste, in particular the infectious and offensive waste streams, including case studies to highlight best practice a review of the terminology used for healthcare clinical and non-clinical wastes. This edition supersedes previous editions. Apart from the direct environmental benefits achieved by the compliant management of healthcare waste, this guidance presents opportunities for introducing cost savings, safer working practices and reducing carbon emissions related to managing waste.