Pinned at the waste store door of the Ranjangaon pharma depot. It covers broken vials, spilled injectables and medicines the owner has told us to destroy.
Waste goes into the colour-coded bags and puncture-proof boxes supplied by the biomedical waste contractor. Each bag is tied, labelled with the date and weighed on the store scale.
The contractor collects twice a week. Every collection travels with the contractor's manifest, listing each bag by weight and colour; the depot keeps the carbon copy, signed by the driver.
Under the contractor's licence, the waste must reach the common treatment facility and go through incineration within 48 hours of collection from the depot. The contractor sends a monthly certificate covering all collections in the month.
Batteries, mercury thermometers and loggers are not medical waste and go back to Stores. Food from the canteen goes in the general bins.
Copies and certificates are filed by month in the QA office and kept for five years.
A bag that splits, a box that is punctured, or a collection that does not arrive on its day is reported to the QA officer at once. A spill is cleaned with the spill kit hung beside the waste store, wearing the gloves and apron from the same hook, and the cleaning materials go into a fresh yellow bag.
If the contractor's driver cannot produce his licence copy or his vehicle permit at the gate, the waste stays in the store and the QA officer phones the contractor's office. Waste is never handed to anyone else who offers to take it.