Medical waste rules in Michigan
Michigan's Medical Waste Regulatory Act, Part 138 of the Public Health Code (MCL 333.13801 to 333.13832), is administered by the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). It regulates producing facilities rather than haulers: every facility that generates medical waste registers, keeps a written medical waste management plan, and may store waste for up to 90 days.
- What counts (MCL 333.13805): cultures and stocks of infectious agents, liquid human and animal blood and body fluids (not urine or materials merely stained with blood), pathological waste, sharps, and contaminated waste from animals exposed to agents infectious to humans.
- Registration (MCL 333.13813, 333.13815): each producing facility registers with EGLE and receives a certificate valid for three years. The fee is $50 for a private practice office with fewer than four licensed physicians, dentists, podiatrists, nurse practitioners, nurse midwives or veterinarians, $20 per licensee up to $80 for larger practices, $75 for other health facilities and non-health-facility generators, and $150 for hospitals with 150 or more beds and clinical laboratories.
- Management plan (MCL 333.13817): on file within 90 days of registering, describing the waste types, segregation, packaging and labeling, storage, on- or off-site decontamination or incineration, the named haulers, the disposal sites, employee protection measures and the person responsible. It is updated within 30 days of any change of hauler, site or method, and a group may keep one common plan for all its offices.
- Containment and storage (MCL 333.13809): categories are separated at the point of origin into containers labeled with the biohazard symbol or the words medical waste or pathological waste in letters at least one inch high; nothing is compacted or mixed before treatment. Medical waste may be stored on the premises for no more than 90 days; a sharps container may stay in use until it is three-quarters full, but no more than 18 months from the first sharp deposited. Outdoor storage is secured or locked in a container weighing more than 500 pounds.
- Packaging for transport (MCL 333.13821): sharps in individual leakproof, rigid, puncture-resistant containers labeled sharps, inside a leakproof outer container; other medical waste in moisture-impervious bags or containers strong enough not to rip, tear or burst, secured against leakage.
- Transport: the Act does not license transporters; the management plan names the hauler and shipments follow the US DOT packaging rules. Sharps contained under section 13821 may be disposed of as solid waste under Part 115, provided they are not compacted or broken in transit.
Source: Michigan Compiled Laws, Public Health Code Part 138, Medical Waste (MCL 333.13801 to 333.13832).
Reviewed September 2026.
This summary is general information, not legal advice. Requirements change; we confirm what applies to your facility during onboarding.Regulations by state