Chapter V: Air pollution and waste

Waste from healthcare activities is waste from diagnostic, monitoring and preventive, curative or palliative treatment activities in the fields of human and veterinary medicine. The provisions of this section apply to waste which : 1° Either present an infectious risk, because they contain viable micro-organisms or their toxins, of which it is known or there is good reason to believe that, due to their nature, their quantity or their metabolism,…

Any person who produces waste as defined in article R. 1335-1 is required to dispose of it. This obligation is incumbent on : 1° The health establishment, the teaching establishment, the research establishment or the industrial establishment, when this waste is produced in such an establishment; 2° The legal entity on behalf of which a healthcare professional carries out his waste-producing activity; 3° In other cases, to the natural person…

The persons mentioned in article R. 1335-2 may, by means of an agreement which must be in writing, entrust the elimination of their healthcare and similar waste to another person who is able to carry out these operations. An order by the ministers responsible for the environment and health sets out the stipulations that must be included in these agreements.

The persons mentioned in article R. 1335-2 must, at each stage of waste disposal, draw up documents enabling disposal operations to be monitored. These documents are defined by an order of the ministers responsible for the environment and health.

Waste from healthcare activities and similar waste as defined in article R. 1335-1 must be separated from other waste as soon as it is produced.

Healthcare and similar waste is collected in single-use packaging. It must be possible to close this packaging temporarily and it must be closed permanently before collection. Packaging must be placed in large bulk containers, except in cases defined by order of the ministers responsible for the environment and health. The packaging, marking, labelling and transport of waste from healthcare and similar activities are subject to the regulatory provisions adopted for…

The procedures for storing waste from healthcare and similar activities, in particular the duration of storage and the characteristics and maintenance conditions of storage premises, are defined by order of the ministers responsible for the environment and health.

Healthcare and similar waste is either incinerated or pre-treated by disinfection so that it can then be collected and treated by municipalities and groups of municipalities under the conditions defined in article L. 2224-14 of the General Local Authorities Code. An order by the ministers responsible for the environment and health defines the limits and requirements relating to the recovery of waste from pre-treatment by disinfection, taking into account the…

I.-Pre-treatment by disinfection means any physical or chemical disinfection process associated with a change in the appearance of waste from healthcare activities involving infectious risks and similar waste. II.Disinfection pre-treatment equipment is designed in such a way that : a) They pre-treat packaged waste from care activities involving infectious risks and similar waste; b) They reduce the microbiological contamination of waste from care activities involving infectious risks and similar waste;…

I.-A disinfection pre-treatment facility is any technical unit in which one or more disinfection pre-treatment devices are used. Without prejudice to the provisions of the Environment Code on facilities classified for environmental protection, any facility for pre-treatment by disinfection of waste from healthcare activities involving infectious risks and similar waste is subject to the provisions of this chapter. II-Any facility for pre-treatment by disinfection must only use equipment for pre-treatment…