Compliance Q&A
Published May 10, 2016
Q: Should I carry filled, closed sharps containers from one location to another where we have a contract for scheduled regulated waste pickups?
A: No
Standards Applicable to Transporters of Special Medical Waste
Resource: Regulated Medical Waste State Resource Locator, The State of Maryland
These standards apply to persons transporting special medical waste within the State if the transportation requires a shipping paper. These regulations do not apply to on-site transportation of special medical waste by generators or by owners or operators of permitted special medical waste management facilities.
- A transporter may not transport special medical wastes without having received a State identification number from the Secretary.
- A person may not transport special medical waste to a facility within the State or from a source within the State unless the person obtains a certificate from the Department. A special medical waste hauler certificate is required of persons engaged in transporting special medical wastes.
- Transporters using vehicles or articulated transports to transport special medical waste to a facility within the State or from a source within the State shall:
- Display prominently the vehicle certificate
- Affix the vehicle certificate to the outside of the left door of the cab of the special medical waste vehicle.
Definition of Special Medical Waste
- Special medical waste is a solid waste that is composed of:
- Anatomical material, which is human or animal body parts, including tissues and organs;
- Blood (human or animal);
- Blood-soiled articles, which means any article that contains blood in any form as a result of contact with blood;
- Contaminated material which means:
- Microbiological laboratory waste, which means waste from a microbiological laboratory that contains an infectious agent and includes cultures and stocks of infectious agents and associated biologicals, or sharps, which means a syringe, needle, surgical instrument, or other article that is capable of cutting or puncturing human skin.
- Microbiological laboratory waste
- The feces of an individual diagnosed as having a disease that may be transmitted to another human being through the feces
- An article soiled with the feces of an individual diagnosed as having a disease that may be transmitted to another human being through the feces
- An article that has come into contact with a known infectious agent.