Universal Pharmaceutical Waste (UPW)
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| Florida Administrative Code 62-730.186 entitled "Universal Pharmaceutical Waste" (UPW) allows generators the option of handling waste pharmaceuticals as Universal Waste. A brief description of what this means is posted on our Pharmaceutical Waste page.
Clean Fuels of Florida, Inc. was the first company in Florida to register with the FDEP as a Large Quantity Handler of Universal Pharmaceutical Waste. As a registered Handler, we are able to provide cost saving alternatives to generators of UPW.
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Some of the benefits of the new regulation include:
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Shipping to a Universal Waste Handler. By following the UPW regulation, healthcare facilities can ship their chemotherapy and pharmaceutical wastes to a Universal Waste Handler Facility while managed in Florida.
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Limited liability. Title to the waste transfers to the designated handler upon acceptance at their facility, who in turn becomes the generator of hazardous waste. By shipping to a facility within Florida, you avoid the risk of having your waste on trip to an out of state TSD.
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Hazardous Waste Reduction. Universal Waste does not count towards your Hazardous Waste volumes. In addition to no longer having to include chemotherapy and pharmaceutical wastes in its RCRA hazardous waste reports, facilities could potentially downgrade their generator status from LQG to SQG or CESQG.
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Reduced disposal costs. Because we are able to consolidate shipments, we can take advantage of volume transportation and disposal pricing and pass significant savings on to our customers.
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Reduced environmental impact. Increased awareness on the proper handling and disposal of waste pharmaceuticals will reduce the practice of ‘red-bagging’ or sewering toxic chemicals. These disposal methods are not only against the law, they also contribute to the contamination of Florida’s resources.
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| Some companies would have you believe that a new regulation is cause for panic and are offering their customers turn-key pharmaceutical management programs. These programs are loaded with tens of thousands of dollars in up-front costs and outrageous labor charges before anything is ever shipped. And when they do ship, they do so under RCRA regulations which are not only costly, it also drives your chances of becoming a Large Quantity Generator (LQG) of hazardous waste. This is entirely contrary to the spirit of the UPW rule which is to make it easier, less complicated and is cheaper to comply with.
Others are citing the UPW rule as the DEPs intention to enforce compliance with proper handling and disposal of waste pharmaceuticals. While this is somewhat true, what they are not offering is for hospitals to take advantage of the many benefits and cost savings of becoming compliant under the UPW regulation.
Why are these companies not offering the UPW alternative? Because they are not Universal Pharmaceutical Waste Handlers, as required by the regulation, so they look to confuse the customer into an expensive contract. And that's just plain garbage.
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