1. Garbage: All solid or semisolid waste, putrescible or non-putrescible, excluding excreta of human or animal origin.
This definition includes refuse, waste, ashes, elements from street sweeping, industrial and commercial waste, from hospital establishments and markets, among others.
2. Solid waste: Any object, substance, or element in a solid or semisolid state, which is abandoned, thrown away, rejected, or discarded.
3. Refuse: All solid or semisolid waste of animal or vegetable origin, subject to putrefaction, coming from the handling, preparation, and consumption of food.
4. Waste: Any defective, useless, or unused product that its possessor destines for abandonment or wishes to dispose of.
5. Household solid waste: That which, by its nature, composition, quantity, and volume, is generated in activities within dwellings or in any establishment similar to these.
6. Commercial solid waste: That generated in commercial and mercantile establishments, such as warehouses, depots, hotels, restaurants, cafeterias, snack bars (sodas), butcher shops, slaughterhouses, markets of all types, offices, and other types of businesses.
7. Industrial solid waste: That generated in activities characteristic of that development sector, as a result of production processes.
8. Biohazardous infectious hazardous waste: these are all types of waste that contain pathogenic agents with sufficient concentration or quantity to transmit viral, bacterial, parasitic, or mycotic diseases to persons or animals exposed to them. Included are wastes that, while not infectious themselves, have been in contact with contaminated materials or are discarded together. Within infectious waste are found biological waste, biological materials, applicators, and any other type of materials used in patient care, textiles, and contaminated clothing (from patients or staff).
Biological waste: includes human excretions (feces, semen, urine, and pus), exudates, or waste materials coming from isolation rooms of patients with highly transmissible diseases. Included are isolated animals and any type of material that has been in contact with these.
Biological materials: include cultures, stored samples of infectious agents, culture media, Petri dishes, instruments used to manipulate, mix, or inoculate microorganisms, expired or unusable vaccines, and filters from highly contaminated areas.
Furthermore, human blood and blood products: patient blood, unusable blood bags, with expired usage period or positive serology, blood samples for analysis, serum, plasma, and other byproducts. Also included are materials like the above even if they have dried, including plasma, serum, and others, as well as the containers that hold them or were contaminated, such as plastic bags, venoclysis tubes, among others.
Applicators and any other type of materials used in patient care: include dressings, cotton swabs (torundas), and cotton.
Contaminated textiles and clothing (from patients or staff): include disposable uniforms, disposable diapers, and sanitary napkins.
9. Biohazardous pathological hazardous waste: parts of human bodies, animals, and fluids.
10. Biohazardous hazardous sharp waste: any object with the capacity to penetrate and/or cut human tissues, facilitating glassware, rigid materials, and others, used in laboratory, dentistry, research, diagnosis, and treatment services to users and/or that have been in contact with infectious agents. Sharp objects without risks of chemical or infectious exposure must also be included, as they can cause injuries in handlers.
Small sharps: scalpel blades, screws, ampoules, vials and cartridges (cárpules) of medications, infusion equipment adapters, lancets, endodontic files, drills for dental procedures, and other small articles must follow the same handling standards as needles, placing them in separate containers for needles.
Larger sharps: include cannulas, Petri dishes, wire, light bulbs, fluorescent tubes, parts of instruments, or other metal articles.
Metal, plastic, and glass surgical medical instruments: include all types of needles, wires, screws, scalpel blades, all types of syringes, cannulas, rigid glass and plastic tubes, ampoules, vials and cartridges (cárpules) of medications, infusion equipment adapters, applicators, small knives (navajillas) and parts thereof, thoracic catheters, dental fixation arches, metal medical-surgical instrumentation with edges and points.
11. Toxic hazardous solid waste: that which, due to its physical or chemical characteristics, depending on its concentration and exposure time, can cause harm and even death to living beings, or cause environmental pollution.
12. Cytotoxic chemical hazardous solid waste: a waste toxic to cells, with carcinogenic, mutagenic characteristics capable of altering genetic material.
13. Combustible hazardous solid waste: that which burns in the presence of oxygen or another incident, by the action of a spark or any other ignition source.
14. Flammable hazardous solid waste: that which can spontaneously ignite under normal conditions. To be considered flammable, it must satisfy any of the following properties:
- being an aqueous solution with more than 24% alcohol by volume.
- being a liquid with a flash point below 60.5°C and an ignition point of 16°C.
- not being a liquid but being capable of producing fire by friction, absorption of moisture, or spontaneous chemical changes at 25°C and at 1.03 kg/cm2 pressure.
15. Explosive chemical hazardous solid waste: those that can cause a violent chemical reaction, which takes place in a very brief period of time and produces an explosion, generating large pressures of gases upon their instantaneous decomposition. To be considered explosive, it must satisfy any of the following properties:
- having an explosivity constant equal to or greater than that of dinitrobenzene.
- being capable of producing a detonating or explosive reaction or decomposition at 25°C and at 1.03 kg/cm2 pressure.
16. Reactive chemical hazardous solid waste: those normally unstable materials that undergo a violent chemical change without detonating, susceptible to violently reacting with water to form potentially explosive mixtures, or capable of generating hazardous or potentially lethal gases. To be considered reactive, it must satisfy any of the following properties:
- under normal conditions (temperature of 25°C and pressure of 1 atmosphere), it polymerizes violently without detonation.
- under normal conditions, upon coming into contact with water in a waste/water ratio of 5:1, 5:3, 5:5, it reacts violently forming toxic gases, vapors, or fumes.
- possessing in its constitution cyanides or sulfides that, when exposed under pH conditions between 2 and 12.5, can generate toxic gases, vapors, or fumes in quantities greater than 250 mg HCN/kg of waste or 500 mg H2S/kg of waste.
- it is capable of detonating or reacting confinement conditions.
- being capable of producing free radicals.
17. Corrosive chemical hazardous solid waste: to be considered corrosive, it must satisfy any of the following properties:
- in a liquid state or aqueous solution, possessing a pH less than or equal to 2 or greater than or equal to 12.5.
- in a liquid state or aqueous solution, and at a temperature of 55°C, it is capable of corroding carbon steel (SAE 1020) at a rate of 6.35 mm or more per year.
18. Volatilizable hazardous solid waste: that which, due to its vapor pressure, at room temperature, evaporates or volatilizes.
19. Lead-acid batteries and batteries (pilas): batteries and batteries (pilas) are electrochemical devices with the capacity to convert chemical energy into electrical energy. The basic battery or battery (pila) is formed by an anode (positive electrode), a cathode (negative electrode), and an electrolyte (liquid solution through which an electrical current can travel). Potentially hazardous components of batteries (baterías/pilas) include: mercury, lead, copper, zinc, cadmium, manganese, nickel, and lithium.
These components are used for various functions; mercury is used to coat zinc electrodes to reduce corrosion and, in this way, improve battery performance. The lead-acid battery, also known as a wet cell, is used mainly in automobiles and other motor vehicles. Most contain sulfuric acid and, approximately, 8.1 kg of lead. Smaller lead-acid batteries are used in video cameras/recorders and power tools.
20. Radioactive solid waste: that which emits electromagnetic radiation at levels higher than natural background radiation. They are all types of waste with radioactive characteristics or contaminated with radionuclides. They are generated in chemical and biological research laboratories, in clinical analysis laboratories, in radiology services, and nuclear medicine services. This waste can be solid or liquid and includes contaminated materials or substances commonly used in clinical or laboratory procedures: syringes, vials, urine, feces, absorbent paper, and others.
21. Construction and demolition debris: are non-contaminated solid waste generated in the construction, repair, and demolition of structures and roads, and non-contaminated solid waste formed by vegetation from land clearing, weed cleaning, maintenance of power lines, and seasonal and post-storm cleaning. Such waste includes, but is not limited to, bricks, concrete and other building materials, soil, rock, wood, wall coverings, gypsum plasterboard (cartón yeso), plaster, plumbing fixtures, non-asbestos insulation, roofing remnants, asphalt pavement, electrical cables, components that do not contain hazardous liquids, and metals found incidentally in any of these materials. Solid waste that is not construction and demolition waste (even if resulting from the construction, remodeling, repair, and demolition of structures and roads, and from land clearing activities) includes, but is not limited to, asbestos waste, garbage, corrugated cardboard, electrical fixtures containing hazardous liquids (such as fluorescent light ballasts), carpeting, furniture, pneumatic appliances, drums, and containers and fuel storage tanks. Specifically excluded from the definition of construction and demolition waste is solid waste (including that which would otherwise be construction and demolition waste) generated by any processing technique, for example, pulverization or crushing (excepting the techniques used in a facility dedicated to construction and demolition debris) that renders the individual components unrecognizable.
22. Yard waste: these are leaves, small branches, shrubs, lawn grass. They may or may not be removed by public cleaning services, whether they come from private gardens or parks or squares, but tree trunks, large branches, or stones cannot be reduced in size by means of compactor trucks, as they would damage the pressing system. For this latter case, non-compactor trucks must be assigned.
23. Bulky waste: this includes refrigerators, washing machines, stoves, furniture, automobile parts and remnants, and the like.
They require a special service to be removed.
Types of Packaging and Wrapping