Patent ID: 8296243

Claim:
An electronic system for identifying and categorizing waste, the system comprising: at least one sorting station comprising a plurality of removable containers; a plurality of removable liners, wherein each of said containers is adapted to receive at least one of said liners, wherein each of said containers and said liners has an opening; wherein each of the liners comprises a machine-readable identification key associated with at least one of a plurality of waste categories such that the machine-readable identification key identifies the liner to a control system, thereby defining a category of waste to be placed in the liner within the container; a closure member adapted to movably cover each of said removable containers; wherein the closure member is selectively movable to an open position and a closed position; wherein each of the liners is associated with at least one of a plurality of medical waste categories, thereby facilitating disposal of medical waste items in the appropriate liner; a handheld device configured to provide disposal instructions to a user, said handheld device comprising a scanner and a user input device for receiving information regarding a medical waste item; wherein the scanner is configured to detect a first parameter of a medical waste item, said first parameter comprising information regarding a composition of such medical waste item; wherein the user input device is configured to receive a second parameter regarding the medical waste item, said second parameter comprising at least one of whether the medical waste item is a sharps and whether the medical waste item or a container containing such medical waste item is empty; and a control system configured to compare information obtained from the handheld device with medical waste item classification information contained in a database; wherein the control system is further configured to assign the medical waste item to at least one medical waste category; and wherein the control system is further configured to identify the appropriate container on the handheld device; and wherein the closure member is adapted to cover the appropriate container is configured to lock in the closed position after receipt of the medical waste item.