For the use of Special Containerfor Infectious Waste

Needle-stick injury

Damage to containers
caused by stacking

Damage to containers
caused by dropping

Damage to containers
caused by toppling

Accidents of this kind might result ininjury to disposal workers or cause
contents to leak out of containers.
Infectious waste management in Japan

Background to infectious waste management
In the past, there have been serious medical incidents in Japan in which medical staff wereaccidentally infected with hepatitis B and other infections by used needles. Besides medicalstaff, waste disposal workers have also been infected with infections by needle-stick injury
when they were collecting/transporting or disposing of infectious waste. Accidents of this kindmade secondary infection of medical staff and infectious waste disposal workers a focus of
public attention.
In response, the Japanese government issued the “Disposal Manual for Infectious Waste”(hereafter called the “Manual”) based on the Waste Disposal and Public Cleansing Law(hereafter called the “Law”) to protect disposal workers from infections and promote proper
disposal of infectious waste.
Current situation of infectious waste management
The infectious waste generator has to use sealed containers for packaging their waste andstore the containers at a designated location to which there is no unauthorized access. With
regard to the disposal of infectious waste, the infectious waste is mainly disposed of byincineration or sterilization.
When infectious waste generators dispose their waste, they contract the disposal of theirwaste in general. On the contract of infectious waste disposal, the waste generators have tocontract with the infectious waste collectors/transporters and disposers who have thebusiness licenses to conduct waste management from the local government.

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14.10.20 2:53:13 PMThe requirements stipulated in the Manual to special containers for infectious wasteIn
to the packaging
and disposalof infectious waste, Japan’s Ministry of the
3. regard
The Advantagesof the E-Manifest
System Reducing
the administrative
throughcentralized
informationwaste
management
Environment
requiresthe use of theburden
specialcontainers
for infectious
as specified in theFacilitates
verificationofindustrial
waste
processing
statusManual, including the followings.
 containers
Legal and regulatorycompliance Hardmade metalor plastic should be used for containing sharp items such as
Thesystem
manageslegally-mandated compliance items, preventing accidental data input
needles, knives, etc.
omissions Hard plastic bags or containers should be used for containing solid waste.
 Data transparency
 Sealed containers that prevent liquid waste leakage should be used for liquid and slurry The information recorded on the manifests is managed and preserved by a third party (theform waste.information processing center), with a data retention period of five years
 Biohazard
mark generators,
should be transporters
shown on theto makeclear
contentof the Waste
and container
disposers canall viewand theexamine
the mostrecent,container. up-to-date manifest information
Biohazard markAssessment of Performance of Containers for Infectious Waste
The Japan Industrial Waste Information Center (JW center) provides a service forassessment the containers to be used for collecting and transporting infectious waste based on
its own criteria within the range prescribed by the Manual. This service aims at providing
reference information for encouraging the use of special container for infectious waste byhealthcare establishments, and the JW center publishes assessment containers for different
その他

3.4%
kinds of theinfectious
the JW centerTheadoption wasteof the one-Manifest
systemwebsite.
has led to a
併用のため業務が煩雑になった
reduction in the administrative workload
6.2%
the Questionnaire Survey on e-Manifest Usage Flow of theInassessment
Status implemented by JW in March 2012, which
The JW center has established the Assessment of Performance of Containers for Infectious
was administered to 1,000 industrial waste
Waste Committee(hereafter
called“AssessmentCommittee”), and the Assessment
generatorsthat wereusingthe
the e-Manifestsystem
紙マニフェストとの(with athe
response43%), ofmore
than 90%strengthofCommittee assesses
reportrate
for ofresults
container’s
tests and for quality control
電子化によりマニ
respondents reported that adoption of the
フェスト業務量がregime.
e-Manifest system had helped to reduce their
軽減した
90.4%
administrative workload.
Makers or sellers ofApplication
Assessment
the containers
request Theto use
Preparationof system is easy
Field survey ofTheCommittee-Application form Users can input
theAssessment
inputted data
to the information
quality data
controlinto their
JWPC, and then transmit-Dataanalysis-Report on results ofResultof theprocessing center with just one click of themouse-Assessment
centercontainer’s strength
assessment
Certificate and the system can be For added convenience,
accessed usinga smartphoneor IC
card-Reviewing
assessment
systemtests*-Report on quality control
regime4. Costassessment
report

The manifest registration fee payable by industrial waste generators averages 20 yen per
manifest*Container’s strength tests: Penetration resistance test, Dropping test, Stacking test, Transporters and disposers are only required to pay a basic fee of 12,960 yen per yearToppling test, etc.

Japan
Industrial
Waste
Information
CenterJapan
Industrial
Waste
Information
Center33Niban-cho,Niban-cho,Chiyoda-ku,
Chiyoda-ku,Tokyo
Tokyo102-0084
102-0084

TEL:03-5275-7111
03-5275-7111
TEL:
Website: http://www.jwnet.or.jp/en
http://www.jwnet.or.jp/ en
Website:TEL FAX 03-5275-7112

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