Remove excess air in plastic bags before sealing to minimize volume. These bags must be sealed with tape or twist tie and then placed in a second bag and sealed to ensure contamination control. The secondary containment bags provide a means for collecting potentially contaminated rubber gloves used for closing primary disposal bags. 2mil thick clear plastic bags are provided by OESO for secondary containment. Laboratories cannot use these bags for primary containment as they are not sufficiently tear-resistant.
Sharps containers are available at the stockrooms and are acceptable dry waste and carcass barrels.
Sharps include, but are not limited to, needles, razor blades, Pasteur pipettes, and broken glass. Sharps containers must also be sealed in a plastic bag to control isotope contamination. For laboratories using isotopes from only one half-life category or with extra space to accommodate multiple barrels, an alternate procedure eliminates unnecessary packaging of dry waste. This procedure is referred to as consolidated waste. These laboratories are allowed to use a separate barrel for each half-life category and may directly add dry waste to the barrel without separately packaging first.