Following legislative changes, the British Veterinary Association has updated its 'Good Practice Guide to Handling Veterinary Waste' for England and Wales.

Supported by the Environment Agency the Guide primarily consists of a quick-reference poster enabling vets to categorise and segregate veterinary waste in line with Environment Agency requirements. The poster defines the types of hazardous waste, outlines the types of containers required and sets out the appropriate classification codes.

The Guide is complemented by more detailed web guidance which incorporates useful templates to download.

BVA President Carl Padgett said: "All businesses have a duty of care to ensure that all waste is stored and disposed of responsibly, that it is only handled or dealt with by those authorised to do so and that appropriate records are kept of all waste that is transferred or received.

"The BVA Guide has been a popular resource for the profession since we first launched it in 2008 making it considerably easier for vets to comply with Hazardous Waste Regulations. The revised poster is hopefully an incentive for practices to check if their requirements have changed and ensure they're still up-to-date."

The poster and web advice are available at http://www.bva.co.uk/activity_and_advice/1641.aspx and BVA members will receive a hard copy of the poster to display in their practice.

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