Particularly in medical research cleanrooms and pharmaceutical cleanrooms, proper waste management and disposal is important for keeping the environment safe for products and people. Medical cleanroom design should be informed by this system to ensure waste handling protocols are easy to follow and that adequate storage is available for a safe and sterile environment. 

A waste management system in medical cleanrooms covers three areas: waste handling protocols, personal protective equipment, and proper waste storage and disposal.

Medical Cleanroom Protocols for Handling Waste

To develop protocols for your medical cleanroom waste management system, look at the materials you work with and the waste your facility generates. This includes how you handle and dispose of used cleaning materials, protective equipment that cannot be sanitized, the specific materials you use to conduct your work, and the byproducts of your work: substances or used materials you can’t recycle or put in a landfill. Make sure your cleanroom follows best practices for handling waste, and develop a set of protocols employees understand and can easily follow.

Your waste management protocols will be facilitated by your medical cleanroom design, which should include places to safely store cleaning materials, the chemicals used in your work, and the waste generated by your cleanroom. The protocols and cleanroom design solutions work together to prevent waste from interfering with or contaminating your processes and keep your people and products safe.

What Counts as Medical Cleanroom Waste?

In order to understand the best ways to handle and dispose of medical cleanroom waste, we must first understand the different types of waste that can be generated in a cleanroom setting. Medical cleanroom hazardous waste materials may be considered toxic, corrosive, ignitable, infectious, biohazardous, or otherwise unsafe to be disposed of in normal ways.

Some waste generated from pharmaceutical cleanrooms is considered a controlled substance. In such situations, the disposal of pharmaceutical waste must take place in compliance with additional DEA regulations.

How Much Waste Does Your Medical Cleanroom Generate?

Depending on how much waste your facility generates, you may need to follow certain regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA divides waste generators into three main types: 

• Very Small Quantity Generators (VSQGs) create less than 100 kg of hazardous waste per month
• Small Quantity Generators (SQGs) create between 100 and 1,000 kg per month
• Large Quantity Generators (LQGs) creates over 1,000 kg of hazardous waste

Employees should understand the difference between types of waste and be trained to follow protocols for handling, labeling, and disposing of waste responsibly. Whether your facility is a VSQG or a VLQG, your cleanroom design should include an adequate waste management system to keep your employees safe and your project protected. 

Personal Protective Equipment

To keep employees safe from the sensitive or hazardous products or waste they’re handling, they must be properly equipped. Personal protective equipment like gloves, garments, and masks, not only keeps harmful substances from reaching personnel, but it also works to prevent contamination by employees. Depending on the application and the threat of contamination or harm to the employee, different types of garments and PPE may be required. Additional items could include: pants, coveralls, goggles, boots, ventilated hoods, hairnets, and more.

While some of these supplies can be sanitized and reused, others, like nitrile gloves, for example, must be disposed of after each use to prevent any kind of contamination. Your cleanroom design will likely need to include a gowning room to provide space for employees to properly equip themselves and limit the entrance of contaminants to the cleanroom, storage for garments and PPE, a sanitation area for employees to wash their hands before entering and after leaving the cleanroom, and storage for used equipment needing to be sanitized or destroyed.

Medical Cleanroom Design: Waste Storage and Disposal 

Containers used to store waste for disposal can be reusable but must be antimicrobial, corrosion-resistant, and able to be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized on a regular schedule. Particularly for highly sensitive materials, a puncture-resistant and leak-proof container may be necessary. All waste must be properly separated, bagged, and labeled prior to disposal.

In some cases, medical waste cannot be immediately discarded. Some types of waste must be stored until they can be transported to a facility where they will be recycled, deposited in a landfill or incinerated, or treated until they’re safe to throw away. Proper waste storage is an important part of medical cleanroom design. It needs to be safely contained where it can’t contaminate your work or risk employee safety. The waste receptacles themselves need to be non-particle shedding, corrosion-resistant, and can’t be placed where they could interrupt your cleanroom’s airflow and reduce the effectiveness of air changes and filters. 

Keeping a clean environment in all areas of the cleanroom is important, and that includes how and where you store and dispose of used medical cleanroom supplies and waste. Angstrom Technology’s cleanroom design experts can help build sterile waste management into your cleanroom’s design. We can add you to our regular maintenance schedule to make sure your facility is operating safely and protecting your products and staff. To learn more, give us a call or reach out online.

Cleanroom garments are as clean as the places where they are kept. They play a vital role in protecting your cleanroom and employees, so it’s essential to take care of them properly. Let’s dive into the importance of keeping cleanroom garments clean, the difference between reusable and disposable garments, and the cleanroom garment storage you’ll need to always have sterile and fresh items on hand.

Medical Cleanroom Garments

Cleanroom garments are an essential part of medical cleanroom operations. Garments are meant to prevent particles from the wearer from shedding and contaminating the cleanroom. In many medical cleanroom applications, they also protect the wearer from contaminants or harmful substances.

Wearing garments outside of the sterile environment of a cleanroom can attract contaminants. The inside of the garment is also contaminated by particles from the wearer. It’s important to use clean garments each time a worker enters the cleanroom environment to protect sensitive products and processes within the controlled space from these particles. 

Properly cleaning protocols and cleanroom garment storage — whether for reusable garments or new disposable ones —  are important to protect workers and the cleanroom from possible contamination. If garments are contaminated, both the integrity of your work and the safety of your employees are at risk. Particularly in medical cleanrooms, there’s no room for error. Contamination could interfere with test results, corrupt substances, compounds or devices, and potentially endanger patients’ lives.

Reusable vs. Disposable Cleanroom Garments

Reusable cleanroom garments can be cleaned in-house or by a third-party cleaning service. Disposable garments are typically meant to be worn once, though it depends on the product and the manufacturer’s recommendations.

Reusable Cleanroom Garments

Reusable garments must be washed with a special process (and extremely hot water) to remove particles and sanitize them safely without compromising or degrading the protective material. If cleaned by a third party, you’ll also need to ensure transport to your facility is sterile and that no contaminants are introduced to your cleanroom from an outside source.

Disposable Cleanroom Garments

Some medical cleanrooms with critical sterilization protocols and stringent requirements opt for disposable garments because it is the safest and most cost-effective option. Disposable garments should be high quality so they are comfortable for workers and won’t break down when in use. Be sure to buy quantities and sizes that are appropriate for all personnel.

Many medical cleanrooms use a combination of both reusable and disposable garments. For example, gowns and face shields may be cleaned, sanitized, and reworn, but disposable nitrile gloves and boot covers are replaced after each use. All garments, whether reusable or disposable, must be kept in appropriate cleanroom garment storage.

Medical Cleanroom Garment Storage

Adequate cleanroom garment storage is just as important as how the garments are used. Cleanroom garments are stored in the gowning room for immediate use, though your facility may also have an area to keep overstock items. 

In the gowning room, cleanroom garment storage takes the form of specialized cabinetry, shelves, and containers arranged in a way that facilitates the gowning procedure. 

A proper gowning procedure will ensure your employees suit up properly without contaminating their garments. This process involves cleaning exposed skin before donning garments in the correct order to contain any particles and not contaminate other items or parts of the garment.

Medical cleanroom cabinets and shelves are used to display all garments for easy access as well as store them before use. Garments for use in critical applications may need to be housed in their own HEPA-filtered cabinets or showered with air to dislodge any particles that may have adhered to the material. 

Cleanroom garment storage may also need anti-static safeguards in place to prevent the attraction of particles due to imbalanced charges. All new garment items must be sealed and packaged individually to prevent contamination. 

The purpose of cleanroom garment storage is to make all items accessible to employees while staying isolated from contaminating particles as much as possible. The use of sticky mats, air showers, and benches can help limit contamination, along with the enforcement of the proper gowning procedure. 

All used garments must be placed in separate cleanroom garment storage to ensure no contamination reaches the fresh, untouched garments. Until they can be cleaned and returned to the gowning room or disposed of responsibly, there should be no contact with the areas used for clean garments.

Cleanroom garment storage is essential to protecting your operations and workers. Does your cleanroom have appropriate garment storage space? If not, give us a call. We’re happy to help design and install the solutions that will make your cleanroom cleaner.