Waste disposal for veterinary practices

Small animal, equine and mixed practices have different stock, but the same categories keep appearing:

• out of date and returned medicines, separated into cytotoxic and other
• surplus parasiticides, wormers, flea products and topical preparations
• anaesthetic agents and sedatives that are no longer used, outside the controlled drug lists
• formalin, specimen pots and histology containers
• in-house laboratory stains, reagents and test kits
• fixer and developer, where a practice has moved to digital imaging
• disinfectants and kennel cleaning concentrates

Controlled drugs are quoted separately by enquiry and never go on a general list. The same applies to oxygen and nitrous oxide cylinders, asbestos, radioactive materials and any chemical that looks unstable. Carcases and animal by-products have their own specialist collection and are outside this work.

• product names and quantities for medicines, chemicals and cleaning concentrates
• a separate list of anything that is, or may be, cytotoxic
• whether controlled drug waste exists, without details of stock, so that a manual enquiry can begin
• any fixer or developer, with the volume and number of containers
• what your clinical waste contractor already collects
• branch sites, with postcodes, if a group is arranging several collections
• a contact and a time that avoids surgery lists

Practices with a farm or equine round should add what comes back from vehicles. Boot stock has a habit of being returned out of date, and a car boot is not a suitable long-term store.

Veterinary waste sits in its own sub-chapter, and it is easy to copy a human healthcare code by mistake. GOV.UK's classification guide gives 18 02 05* for hazardous chemicals, 18 02 07* for cytotoxic and cytostatic medicines and 18 02 08 for other medicines. Infectious clinical waste is 18 02 02*, with sharps coded according to what contaminated them.

Chemically preserved tissue is hazardous, and it is coded 18 02 05* with the anatomical code alongside it. Photochemicals move out of chapter 18 altogether, into chapter 9. If your paperwork came from a template written for a GP surgery, check that the 18 01 codes have not been carried across.

Medicines in the 18 02 08 group are not classed as hazardous, so they move on a waste transfer note, kept for two years. Cytotoxic medicines move on a consignment note. That is a strong reason to keep the two physically apart in the practice, because one misplaced vial changes the classification of the whole container.

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate guidance sets out the legal rules, and they turn on a distinction between stock and waste. In Great Britain, Schedule 2 stock must be destroyed in the presence of a suitable witness, such as an independent veterinary surgeon, a VMD inspector or a police controlled drugs liaison officer. The date and quantity go in the register, signed by the witness.

Waste is treated differently. A quantity too small to be usable, or a dose drawn up and not given, counts as waste. It does not need formal witnessing, but it must still be recorded and made irretrievable before disposal. The VMD gives denaturing kits as one example: plastic boxes containing absorbent material, which then pass to an authorised waste contractor.

In England, the T28 exemption allows veterinary surgeries to sort and denature waste controlled drugs. It is free to register, is limited to waste produced on that site, and does not apply to drugs that are hazardous waste. GOV.UK says exemption rules are expected to change from January 2027, subject to parliamentary approval. Northern Ireland has different arrangements, including limits on who can witness destruction, so check the VMD page if you practise there.

All of this is your legal responsibility, and it happens before any collection. If you tell us denatured drugs are waiting, we deal with them as a separate enquiry.

Chemotherapy is now routine in many small animal practices, and it brings an exposure risk for staff. HSE guidance applies to anyone working with animals receiving cytotoxic drugs, and it says veterinary practitioners are equally at risk. Contaminated gloves, syringes, vials and even patient waste all need thought.

Waste definitions go beyond cancer drugs. HTM 07-01 gives the test as acute toxicity, carcinogenicity, reproductive toxicity or mutagenicity. In veterinary stock, that can include hormone preparations and chloramphenicol. Ask your clinical lead which products in your formulary meet that test, and label a purple-lidded container accordingly. Do not rely on a nurse's memory of which vials count.

Volatile anaesthetics are a common leftover. Part-used bottles of isoflurane and sevoflurane can be listed like any other liquid. Old halothane still turns up occasionally. Please make sure they are in their original, closed bottles and not poured into a shared container.

Parasiticides are the veterinary stream we would watch most closely for environmental harm. Fipronil, permethrin and ivermectin are far more toxic to aquatic life than the small quantities might suggest, and veterinary product information routinely warns against disposal in wastewater. Returned spot-on pipettes, wormer syringes and sheep dip concentrates should go on the list by name. Medicated feed, dips or farm-scale stock from a mixed practice should be flagged at the start, as the quantities change how a job is priced and packed.

In-house laboratories have their own small collection. Rapid stains, Giemsa and Gram stain kits, methanol fixatives, immersion oil and analyser reagents build up in the prep area, and analyser waste often contains azide or other preservatives. Fish and exotics practices may also hold anaesthetic agents such as tricaine. Each of these belongs on the list by product name, with its safety data sheet where you have one.

Under the Environment Agency measures for permitted sites, a veterinary practice producing less than 5 tonnes of clinical waste a year needs a pre-acceptance audit every two years, and before the first batch of waste goes to a permitted site. Most clinical waste contractors will prompt for this, but it only reflects what you declare. If a chemical stream is missing, it is missing from the audit too.

Keep the controlled drugs register and waste records separate, because they answer different questions. The VMD inspector wants to see stock reconciled in the register. A waste regulator wants to see the transfer note, the consignment note and the authorised person who took it. Group-owned practices should keep these at each site, even when head office holds a copy.

A practice that moves or merges should clear its store while the people who bought the stock are still there. A shelf of unlabelled bottles in a farm store or a kennel block is hard to deal with years later, and it usually becomes a chemical store assessment job.