Non-hazardous or general waste is waste that has not been in contact with infectious agents, hazardous chemicals
or radioactive substances and does not pose a sharps hazard. A signifiant proportion (about 85%) of all waste
from health-care facilities is non-hazardous waste and is usually similar in characteristics to municipal solid waste.
More than half of all non-hazardous waste from hospitals is paper, cardboard and plastics, while the rest comprises
discarded food, metal, glass, textiles, plastics and wood.
In many places, community or regulatory requirements encourage materials recycling. In the past, all or most nonhazardous and municipal waste was discarded in dumps or landfils or burnt in municipal incinerators. Greater
awareness of the environmental impacts of waste and the recognition that most of the non-hazardous waste from
health-care facilities is potentially recyclable or compostable have changed the approaches to managing general
waste