Environmental Science Center

Infectious waste

According to the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act, infectious waste is defined as “waste material generated by medical institutions that contains (or might contain) or is attached (or likely to be attached) with disease-causing agents that are known (or suspected) to infect humans.” “Medical institutions” includes research institutes of university (medical, dentistry, pharmaceutical, and veterinary). Therefore wastes produced in university can fall into infectious waste depending on its characteristics.

A manual for infectious waste treatment pursuant to the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act has been created, which provides details of the methods of collection, storage, transport, sterilization, disinfection and outsourcing of treatment. In UToyko, faculty/school is responsible for the disposal of infectious wastes. Follow the rule at each faculty/school.

Pseudo-infectious waste

Pseudo-infectious waste is the waste that resembles infectious waste but not infectious. In other words, the waste that it is difficult to distinguish from infectious waste produced from medical activity by its appearance. This is a unique category of waste in UTokyo. This include syringes, needles, tight-fit gloves, petri dishes.

From the view point of public acceptance, these wastes must be treated in the same manner as infectious waste in UToyko. However, some of pseudo-infectious waste can be handled as laboratory plastic waste after a proper sterilization. This rule varies by campuses, please refer to each campus’ rule below.

Classification of pseudo-infectious wastes at each campus