The human being is at the core of the Septosystem, from the beginning to the end of the logistics chain. It already starts during the assembly of the packing containers. Most of the simple work is carried out in foreign countries. This is not good for our sheltered workshops. The Septopack® and the Septosafe® are assembled by employees of a sheltered workshop that approaches this complicated task with great motivation at the logistics centre of HW Logistics. That is certainly something!
The Septosystem® is the only system that uses a special wire container: the Septainer®. This container can house exactly 16 waste packing containers (Septopack® and Septosafe®) with a total weight starting at136 kg, in a single roll container which can easily be rolled from the departments to the lorry. That saves time, effort and your back!
The roll containers can easily be unloaded mechanically for processing (combustion or decontamination) The simple container unloading installation can be used to unload approximately 900,000 packing containers per year, that is 3500 a day (!) without requiring the aid of human hands. The medical employees were taken into account when developing the Septoframe®, which converts the P620 and P621 packing containers into a pedal bin.
Safety and legislation
The legislation sets clear criteria for what concerns the safety of human beings and the environment when removing and treating specific and infectious waste. Briefly:
1 The Environment management act regulates the removal of waste. The Landelijk Afvalbeheerplan (LAP; National waste management plan) is part of it. Sector plan 10 of the LAP defines the difference between specific and non-specific (hospital) waste that, for now, can only be processed (combustion) at the ZAVIN in Doordrecht.
2 Another law is of importance for what concerns safety:
The Wet vervoer gevaarlijke stoffen (WVGS; Transportation of hazardous substances). The objective of this Act is to prevent damage to and hindrance of human beings, animals and the environment.
The international requirements for the transportation of hazardous substances is included in a European agreement, the ADR (Agreement on Dangerous Goods by Road). The version currently valid in The Netherlands is ADR 2005. The point of departure is the UN list for hazardous substances. Every substance has a unique UN code. Companies that remove (hospital) waste have to allocate the correct UN code to the waste.
Septosafe P620
The following waste definition and codes are of importance to hospitals, laboratories, treatment facilities or research institutes:
UN 2814 Waste, infectious (or “contagious”) substances, hazardous for human beings
UN 2900 Waste, infectious (or “contagious”) substances, only hazardous for animals
“These waste materials have to be packed for transportation by road in UN-approved packing according to packing instruction P620. The specific packing has to meet the highest requirements for the fall test, pressure test and bar test.
HW-Logistics has developed the Septosafe® for this purpose. TNO issued an official UN marking on the 24th of November 2005. The UN marking number is:
UN/4G/CLASS 6.2/06/NL/HWL 3047
Septopack P621
UN 3291
“Unspecified hospital waste not specified elsewhere ” or “ (Bio)medical waste not specified elsewhere” or “ Regulated medical waste not specified elsewhere” - This is hospital waste that contains class B infectious substances (with the exception of cultures and hospital or medical waste for which it can be reasonably assumed that the probability of the presence of infectious substances is low).
“These waste materials have to be packed for transportation by road in UN-approved packing according to packing instruction P621.
HW-Logistics has developed the Septopack® for this purpose. The official marking for the Septopack® is:
UN/4G/Y17/S/06/NL/Septopack 3011
The ADR regulations also require that the P621 packing, the Septopack®, has sufficient absorbing agent before it is filled to increase the safety level. The packing should not contain any liquid. The Septosystem® has Septodry® for this purpose: Practical bags containing 25 grams of a strong absorbing agent that is placed in the packing before use to absorb and bind all liquid.
Septosharp
The complete needle box series called Septosharp® completes the packaging range. The ADR legislation is carried out to the letter. Nothing comes in between. All packaging meets the puncture resistance requirements (sharps) according to BS. In order to exclude all risks the wire roll container is another shell around the packaging in case of disasters. We do not take safety risks!
1) Content taken from the “Packing is one issue, separation is another” report (“Verpakken is één, scheiden is twee”) drawn up by the Dutch Transport and Water Management Inspectorate (Inspectie Verkeer en Waterstaat) on the 24th of December 2005 (K. Hersbach).
2) The approval of an alternative treatment method (decontamination) is currently being processed.