Chemical and Special Waste Disposal in Canada’s Hospital Settings

Canadian hospitals and healthcare facilities handle a complex mix of materials every day. While sharps and biomedical waste often get the most attention, there are other waste streams that demand equal care. From expired medications to laboratory reagents, flammable liquids and disinfectants, much of what’s used to care for patients can also become hazardous once it’s no longer needed. Proper handling and disposal of chemical and special waste is critical not only for safety and compliance, but also for environmental responsibility.

For over 25 years, Daniels Health has been dedicated to providing compliant, sustainable solutions for managing challenging waste streams in hospitals. Working with healthcare facilities across Canada, our focus is on protecting staff, patients and the environment while helping hospitals meet both federal and provincial regulations. Understanding how to properly collect, store and dispose of non-traditional waste streams is key to eliminating potential compliance gaps that can open a hospital up to injuries, fines and reputational damage.

TOPICS WE WILL COVER:

Why Chemical Waste Can’t Go in Regular Waste or Be Poured Down the Drain

Chemical waste generated in healthcare settings can include everything from solvents and reagents to expired sanitizers, cleaners and lab samples. In contrast to used needles or blood-soaked gauze, many of these items look benign, and it’s easy to assume they can just be thrown away in the same manner as household trash. However, while they may not be biohazards, disposing of these materials through regular waste streams or drains is both unsafe and illegal.

Daniels Health has a history in Canada of ensuring every container of chemical waste is segregated, packaged and transported in accordance with federal and provincial requirements. Through our network of licensed treatment partners, we provide safe and traceable disposal methods for a wide range of hazardous materials. Every process we use is designed to meet the highest standards for compliance, safety and environmental stewardship.

Recycling Expired Hand Sanitizer

Hand sanitizer is one of the most frequently used chemicals in any hospital setting. It’s so ubiquitous that households even have it on hand and children carry it with their lunch bags. In part because of this commonality, it’s also one of the most mishandled chemical wastes in hospital environments. Many generators are unaware that alcohol-based sanitizer is a Class 3 flammable liquid. That means it must be managed as hazardous waste. Disposing of it in regular trash or pouring it down the drain is unsafe, non-compliant and potentially harmful to the environment.

The challenge is that few facilities in Canada are equipped to handle flammable liquids responsibly. As a result, expired sanitizer has traditionally been bulked and sent for use as an alternative fuel in cement kilns. This approach diverts waste from landfill and provides a source of recovered energy, making it a reasonably sustainable solution. However, Daniels Health is focused on developing even more environmentally responsible alternatives.

Through partnerships with approved recycling facilities, Daniels Health offers a closed-loop process where expired sanitizer is distilled to recover alcohol that can be refined into new 95% products. These recovered materials are then reused for industrial purposes, keeping valuable resources in circulation while reducing emissions.

Ongoing demand for sanitizer disposal remains high, with hospitals and government agencies continuing to rotate stockpiles built during the COVID-19 pandemic. Daniels Health provides a compliant and sustainable option for managing these materials, giving healthcare facilities peace of mind that flammable liquids are handled safely, efficiently and in accordance with Canadian regulations.

Key Takeaway: Treat expired hand sanitizer as hazardous waste. Partner with an approved recycler like Daniels Health to ensure safe handling, full compliance and a more sustainable outcome.

Understanding Labpacking in Hospital Environments

Hospitals and laboratories often generate a variety of chemicals that can’t be disposed of through standard biomedical or pharmaceutical waste streams. From solvents and reagents to small quantities of outdated or unknown substances, these materials require careful sorting, documentation and packaging before transport. This is where labpacking comes in.

Labpacking involves grouping compatible chemicals together in a single outer container to ensure safety and compliance during storage and transport. Incompatible materials are separated, and any non-compliant or damaged packaging is overpacked into approved containers for shipment. This process helps prevent leaks, reactions or contamination events while meeting strict regulatory requirements.

In Canada, regulations for labpacking fall under both federal and provincial authority. Transport Canada’s TDG framework governs the movement of hazardous materials, while each province establishes its own environmental regulations that outline how these wastes must be classified, documented and shipped for disposal. Requirements can vary by province, including differences in labelling, coding and the type of documentation needed for manifests.

Daniels Health simplifies this process for healthcare facilities by providing end-to-end labpack services. Our team handles the segregation of chemicals, provides the proper packaging and labels, and manages all transport and documentation in compliance with both TDG and provincial standards. We also help facilities identify and collect secondary waste commonly found in labs but not typically covered by medical waste programs, including printer cartridges, lamps and bulbs, and batteries. This level of oversight ensures that all materials, from common solvents to specialized lab chemicals, are handled safely and in full compliance with Canadian law.

Key Takeaway: Labpacking protects staff, facilities and the environment by ensuring chemical waste is packaged, labelled and transported correctly. Daniels Health provides a compliant, coast-to-coast solution that keeps hospitals aligned with both federal and provincial regulations.

Safe Disposal of Inhalers

Inhalers are a small but important category of chemical waste that require special handling. Each unit contains compressed gas, which poses a significant hazard if exposed to heat or punctured. When discarded incorrectly, inhalers can explode or release propellants that are harmful to both people and the environment.

In many healthcare facilities, inhalers are often found in small quantities mixed in with other pharmaceutical waste streams. While this might seem harmless, they must be separated and treated through a specialized destruction process designed for compressed gas products. The safest and most compliant approach is to send them to an approved incinerator that can neutralize both the residual medication and the gas propellant while allowing the recovery of valuable materials.

Daniels Health provides an efficient solution for hospitals and clinics that need to dispose of inhalers. We offer dedicated 20L collection pails that allow healthcare staff to safely consolidate inhalers for pickup. Once collected, these containers are transported to a partner facility equipped with the technology required to manage compressed gas waste safely. The entire inhaler, including any remaining liquid and the aluminum canister, is processed and recycled, ensuring complete destruction of hazardous components and maximum recovery of reusable materials.

Key Takeaway: Inhalers should never be placed in regular waste or pharmaceutical bins. Daniels Health provides a practical compliant collection and recycling solution that keeps compressed gas waste out of landfills and safely handled from pickup to processing.

Safe Disposal of Specimens in Formaldehyde

Hospitals, laboratories and pathology departments frequently work with specimens preserved in formaldehyde, a material that requires careful management from both a biological and chemical standpoint. Because these materials consist of two distinct waste types: the biological specimen and the chemical preservative, they cannot be handled or transported together.

The specimen itself is classified as biomedical waste, while the formaldehyde is considered a hazardous pharmaceutical waste under Canadian regulations. Each must be collected, packaged and disposed of separately. This separation is the responsibility of the generator, meaning hospitals and laboratories must ensure that each component is placed in the correct container before collection.

Daniels Health provides the proper containment systems and logistics for both waste streams. Specimens are handled as biomedical waste and transported for treatment and disposal in accordance with provincial health and environmental standards. Formaldehyde, on the other hand, is collected in approved chemical waste containers and managed as hazardous waste. The two streams travel through different transportation and disposal channels to ensure full compliance, traceability and safety for all involved.

Our trained specialists help healthcare teams correctly identify, segregate and package these materials, ensuring that both the chemical and biological components are managed in a manner that protects staff and the environment.

Key Takeaway: Specimens preserved in formaldehyde must be separated before disposal. The biological waste needs to be treated as biomedical waste and the formaldehyde as hazardous chemical waste. Daniels Health provides compliant containers, logistics and documentation to keep both waste types safely managed and fully traceable.

Make Safety, Sustainability and Compliance Work Together

Chemical and special waste management in healthcare protects patients, staff and the environment, while keeping Canadian hospitals compliant with both federal and provincial requirements. Whether it’s expired hand sanitizer or unused inhalers, each waste type carries its own risks and regulations. When handled incorrectly, they can threaten safety, cause environmental harm and lead to significant regulatory penalties.

Daniels Health provides Canadian hospitals and other healthcare facilities with trusted solutions that simplify the complexities of hazardous waste disposal. Our approach combines regulatory expertise, safe containment systems and sustainable treatment partnerships to ensure that every waste stream, from biomedical to chemical, is managed responsibly.

As healthcare evolves, Daniels Health continues to invest in innovation and sustainability. Our work with recycling partners, process improvements and clean treatment technologies reflects our long-term commitment to reducing environmental impact while maintaining the highest standards of safety, practicality and compliance.

Across Canada, hospitals, clinics and laboratories rely on Daniels Health to keep their waste management programs safe, efficient and compliant. From Canada’s rural to urban areas, we’re proud to help healthcare facilities protect the people and communities they serve, both today and into the future. We’re here to help make things easier, so you and your staff can focus on patient care.

Learn how we can streamline your waste process.