Section 526.18. Waste audit.

  Before completing or updating the medical waste reduction plan required in s. NR 526.19 , each director or director's designee shall audit the medical facility's current solid waste management practices. Each director or director's designee shall repeat the audit at least every 5 years for the whole medical facility or more frequently for any part of the facility where there has been a significant change in solid waste characteristics or amounts of solid waste due to major remodeling, expansion of service or other factors. Each director or director's designee shall keep a copy of the results of the initial audit and all subsequent audits at the medical facility. The department may review these records upon request. The waste audit shall address all of the following:

(1)   Source areas. The waste audit shall identify all areas within the medical facility where solid waste, not just medical waste, is generated.

(2)   Waste types. The waste audit shall identify the types of waste that are generated within each source area. It is not necessary to determine how much of each waste type is generated in each source area. The waste types are: medical waste, including infectious waste items listed in s. NR 526.05 and items which are either being mixed with infectious waste or handled as infectious waste; hazardous waste, including but not limited to hazardous chemotherapy waste; radioactive waste; trace chemotherapy waste; recyclable materials; wastes which may have to be managed separately because they are any combination of infectious, hazardous or radioactive waste; and other solid waste.

(3)   Quantity of medical waste. The waste audit shall identify how many pounds of medical waste the medical facility, as a whole, generated during the previous 12 months.

(4)   Medical waste generation rate. The waste audit shall identify the rate at which the medical facility generated medical waste during the 12 months covered by the audit. The waste generation rate shall be calculated according to the appropriate formula in s. NR 526.21 (1) .

(5)   Waste management practices. The waste audit shall identify how medical waste is collected, stored, transported and treated from the point of generation to the point of final disposal, including any medical waste discharged to a publicly-owned wastewater treatment system. The audit shall identify how non-infectious waste is prevented from being mixed with infectious waste. The audit shall include any waste types that are currently mixed with or may be mixed with infectious waste. The audit may also identify waste management practices for waste types that are not mixed with medical waste.

History: Cr. Register, October, 1994, No. 466 , eff. 11-1-94; CR 05-020 : am. (2) Register January 2006 No. 601 , eff. 2-1-06.

Note

Infectious waste which is also hazardous may also be regulated by the department under hazardous waste rules. See chs. NR 660 to 670 and s. NR 526.11 (2) (f) . Infectious waste which is also radioactive is regulated by the department of health services under ch. DHS 157 and the federal government under Title 10 CFR until no longer regulated as radioactive material, as provided in s. NR 526.02 (6) . Microsoft Windows NT 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1