General information, not legal, building or medical advice. Call Triple Zero (000) in an emergency, or go to the emergency department of your nearest hospital. Clinical waste rules belong to each state: in Victoria, start with EPA Victoria’s clinical waste page.
SHEET A-104 · CLINICAL WASTEClinical waste in the fitout
The clinical waste rules on this sheet come from state agencies, and it covers three states: Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia. In Victoria, the Department of Health says all waste should be kept in secure areas until it is collected, and EPA Victoria says clinical and related industrial waste “must be treated before final disposal”; anywhere else, check that state or territory’s own rules.
- Sheet
- A-104
- Subject
- Clinical waste
- States
- VIC · NSW · WA
- Date checked
- 8 Oct 2026
- Sources
- Foot of this page
Clinical waste definitions
Each state draws the line in its own words. Read the definition for the state the clinic is in.
Victoria
EPA Victoria: “Clinical waste is waste generated in a clinical or similar setting. It can cause disease or injury and can be offensive to the community.”
And of one kind in particular: “Cytotoxic waste is the most hazardous type of waste.”
New South Wales
The NSW EPA says the definition in Schedule 1 of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 takes in sharps waste, cytotoxic waste, clinical waste, and pharmaceutical, drug or medicine waste. The whole group is pre-classified as “special waste”.
Western Australia
WA Health’s code treats clinical waste as waste that could cause disease, a sharps injury or public offence, sharps, human tissue, laboratory and animal waste among it. Its “related” waste covers cytotoxic, pharmaceutical, chemical and radioactive waste.
Victoria: storage, collection and treatment
In Victoria, EPA Victoria says: “Clinical and related industrial waste is pre-classified as reportable priority waste under Schedule 5 of the Environment Protection Regulations 2021”, and duties under the Environment Protection Act 2017 “apply to anyone who generates, transports or receives clinical waste.” “The general environmental duty also applies.” Followed through a clinic, the Victorian sources describe four stations.
- In the clinical area
Victoria’s Department of Health expects every healthcare facility to have policies and procedures for managing all the waste it produces, and waste to leave clinical areas at least three times a day, more often where needed, as in specialised areas.
- Held on site
It is then kept in secure areas until collected. EPA Victoria says storing 40 cubic metres or less of biomedical waste needs an A21 registration for temporary storage, and adds: “This does not apply to biomedical waste generated at the site by a council, a health service or an ambulance service.”
- Collected
Clinical and pharmaceutical waste is collected by waste disposal companies licensed with the EPA, for disposal at specialised facilities the EPA also licenses. “It is the responsibility of the waste generator to ensure that all waste types are only sent to treatment facilities that have a permission for those specific waste types.”
- Treated
Before disposal, the waste is treated, “for example, by incineration (burning) or autoclave (sterilising).” Certain activities with this waste need a permission from the EPA, and permissions carry conditions.
New South Wales: special waste and waste plans
Classing clinical and related waste as special waste lets the NSW EPA set stricter, more specific requirements for how it is transported and managed, to lower the risk to the environment and to people’s health. Waste generators are responsible for classifying their own waste so it is managed and disposed of properly.
Sharps waste, under NSW environment protection law, is waste collected from designated sharps containers used in business, commercial or community service activities. Health professionals who deal with sharps waste regularly, larger facilities such as hospitals, day-procedure centres and pathology laboratories among them, must develop and implement a Clinical and Related Waste Management Plan following NSW Health’s guidance for health services.
Those who transport, store, treat or dispose of the waste are pointed to the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997, Schedule 1, on licensing, and to the Protection of the Environment Operations (Waste) Regulation 2014, Part 11, on storage, transport and disposal.
Western Australia: WA Health’s code
WA’s Code of Practice for Clinical and Related Waste Management sets minimum requirements for WA Health, so that this waste is separated, stored, moved and disposed of in ways that limit the public’s exposure and the harm to the environment. It applies specifically to WA Health, whose facilities stay responsible for their waste from where it is made to where it is finally disposed of, whoever is contracted to carry it. It also applies, more generally, to anyone who handles, transports or disposes of clinical and related waste, under the general public health duty in section 34 of the Public Health Act 2016. Several of its rules land on the floor plan:
| Topic | WA code requirement |
|---|---|
| Separating | Clinical and related waste is kept apart from general and recyclable waste at the time and place it is generated. |
| Containers | Colour-coded, labelled containers under AS/NZS 3816, each with a bin liner of the same colour. |
| Bags | Filled no more than two-thirds, so they close securely, and never compacted by hand. |
| Sharps | Rigid-walled containers complying with AS 4031 and AS/NZS 4261; single-use containers are never emptied, cleaned or reused. |
| Highest risk | Cytotoxic drugs, pharmaceuticals and recognisable body parts go to high temperature incineration at an authorised controlled waste facility. |
Waste in the floor plan
The Australasian Health Facility Guidelines’ planning unit for ambulatory care makes one layout point plainly: a stand-alone community health centre usually has no disposal rooms, and instead gets a separate, secure waste holding compound, placed so it can be collected from the kerb.
Some points in Victoria’s Department of Health guidance are not tied to Victoria. General, clinical and pharmaceutical waste each have their own handling procedures. Biohazard bags carry the biohazard symbol and are currently yellow. The person using a single-use sharp places it in a sharps container meeting AS 4031:1992 and AS/NZS 4261:1994. And the NHMRC has its own guidelines on managing waste from healthcare facilities.
This sheet holds no clinical waste rules for Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT or the Northern Territory. Rules differ from state to state, so check with that state or territory’s environment regulator.
Hand hygiene and cleaning are on sheet A-102, designing for infection control, and the planning units this sheet quotes are explained on sheet A-105, the health facility guidelines. Every sheet is in the index of sheets.