Dental waste colour coding: which bin does it go in?

Updated 6 November 2026 · By the Dental Waste Disposal team

Short answer: UK dental waste follows the HTM 07-01 colour codes: white for amalgam, yellow for waste needing incineration including part-used anaesthetic cartridges, orange for infectious waste suitable for alternative treatment, yellow and black tiger for offensive waste such as gloves and bibs, blue for non-cytotoxic medicines, purple for cytotoxic medicines and black or clear for general waste. Lead foil, gypsum and X-ray chemicals each need their own separate container.

Dental waste colour coding: which bin does it go in?

Why colour coding matters

Colour coding tells everyone who handles the waste how it must be treated. A yellow lid means incineration, an orange bag means the waste can go for alternative treatment, a tiger bag means it is non-infectious. Putting the wrong item in the wrong container can mean mercury going into an incinerator, medicines being treated at too low a temperature, or low-risk gloves being paid for at infectious waste rates. The practice is legally responsible for describing its waste correctly, and the colour of the container is part of that description.

The codes below follow HTM 07-01, the Department of Health guidance used in England and widely adopted elsewhere, with WHTM 07-01 in Wales, SHTN 3 in Scotland and equivalent guidance in Northern Ireland. Your contractor's containers should match them.

The dental colour code at a glance

Colour	Stream	Typical dental examples
White	Amalgam and mercury	Waste amalgam, capsules, separator contents, teeth with amalgam fillings
Yellow-lidded sharps	Medicinally contaminated sharps for incineration	Part-used anaesthetic cartridges, needles used with medicines
Orange-lidded sharps	Sharps with no medicinal contamination	Burs, blades, files and needles not used with medicines
Orange bag	Infectious waste for alternative treatment or incineration	Waste heavily contaminated with blood or from known infection
Yellow bag or bin	Infectious waste requiring incineration	Infectious waste contaminated with chemicals or medicines
Yellow and black tiger bag	Offensive, non-infectious waste	Gloves, bibs, masks, aprons and paper towels from routine care
Blue-lidded container	Non-cytotoxic medicines	Expired local anaesthetic stock, emergency drugs, antibiotics
Purple	Cytotoxic and cytostatic medicines and sharps	Rare in dentistry, but needed if any such medicines are used
Black or clear	General municipal waste	Packaging, reception paper, staff kitchen waste

Dental streams that need their own container

Used X-ray fixer and developer, kept in separate sealed and labelled chemical containers
Lead foils from intra-oral film packets, collected for metal recycling
Gypsum and plaster models, kept separate because of the gas risk in landfill
Extracted teeth with amalgam, which go in the amalgam container rather than the infectious stream
Recycling such as clean card, paper and plastics from reception and stock deliveries

Common segregation mistakes

Putting all soft waste in orange bags, including low-risk gloves and bibs
Placing part-used cartridges in orange-lidded sharps containers
Dropping amalgam capsules or teeth with fillings into sharps or clinical bags
Putting burs and matrix bands into soft clinical bags where they can pierce the bag
Overfilling sharps containers past the fill line
Mixing fixer and developer in one container
Leaving general packaging in clinical bins, which raises weights and costs

Setting up each surgery

Every surgery normally needs a small yellow-lidded sharps container at the chair, a white amalgam container if amalgam is placed or removed, an orange or yellow bag for infectious waste, a tiger bag for offensive waste and a general waste bin for packaging. The decontamination room usually has its own sharps and offensive waste bins. Clear wall charts at each bin, and a short segregation refresher in staff induction, prevent most errors.

Label each bin with what goes in it, in words as well as colour
Place sharps containers within arm's reach of where sharps are used
Keep amalgam containers sealed between uses
Review segregation as part of your pre-acceptance audit

Storing segregated waste before collection

Segregation at the chair only works if streams stay separate until they leave the building. Waste should move from surgeries to a central store in a way that keeps bags intact, containers closed and colours distinct.

Use lockable wheeled bins in the correct colours for bagged infectious and offensive waste
Keep the store locked, away from public areas and protected from weather and pests
Store sharps containers upright and closed, never loose in clinical bags
Keep amalgam containers sealed and away from heat sources
Keep X-ray chemicals on a spill tray, away from drains, with fixer and developer apart
Keep medicines in a secure, locked area until collection
Clean and disinfect the store and bins regularly, and record when you do

If your store is regularly full before collection day, increase the collection frequency or bin size rather than overfilling bins or leaving bags on the floor.

Training staff to segregate correctly

Most segregation errors come from busy clinical moments rather than lack of knowledge. Short, practical training at induction, a laminated chart beside each set of bins and a quick reminder at team meetings after any audit finding are usually more effective than long written policies. New nurses joining from hospital settings may be used to different local colour practices, so show them your system on their first day.