The Universal Waste Rule modified the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act’s (RCRA) hazardous waste regulations by establishing a set of streamlined requirements for the collection of certain widely dispersed hazardous wastes, called "universal wastes.”
This proposed rule would "facilitate better management of pharmaceutical wastes by streamlining the generator requirements and encouraging generators of hazardous pharmaceutical wastes to manage them under the provisions of the Universal Waste Rule, which ensures that these hazardous pharmaceutical wastes are properly disposed of and treated as hazardous wastes," according to the Federal Register notice concerning the proposed rule.
The rule indicates that the EPA is paying closer attention to pharmaceutical waste disposal by healthcare facilities, says Gregory McKenna, R.Ph., JD, managing member of PharmASC-e Consultants, a pharmaceutical waste management consulting company.
"The one thing that will happen with this change is that the EPA has recognized that surgery centers, along with other healthcare professionals, haven’t been as diligent as they should have in taking the disposal of pharmaceuticals as seriously as they should," says Mr. McKenna. "There will definitely be a greater awareness on the part of healthcare regulators. It will now be very easy to see if a facility has a system or not, and if they are following the system or not."
Failure to properly dispose of pharmaceutical wastes can lead to significant fines and other legal ramifications.
ASCs should support this proposed rule because the change would make their disposal of pharmaceutical waste cheaper and easier by requiring less reporting, says Mr. McKenna.
Learn more about the EPA’s proposal regarding hazardous pharmaceutical wastes .
Look in the January issue of Becker’s ASC Review to learn more about why pharmaceutical waste disposal is becoming a more critical issue for ASCs and six best practices to help ASCs start to develop a law-abiding, efficient pharmaceutical waste management program and also potentially reap some financial benefits for their surgery centers.
