Navarra launches healthcare waste decree with five groups and new deadlines

The Official Gazette of Navarra number 176, of Monday, September 7, 2026, publishes Foral Decree 57/2026, of August 19, on Healthcare Waste of Navarra, which repeals the regulations in force since 1993 and 1994 and adapts the management of this waste to Law 7/2022, of April 8, on waste and contaminated soils for a circular economy. The regulation, signed in Pamplona by the President of the Government of Navarra, María Chivite Navascués, and the Councilor for Rural Development and Environment, José María Ayerdi Fernández de Barrena, enters into force the day after its publication.

A renewed legal framework after three decades

The regulation replaces Foral Decree 296/1993, of September 13, and Foral Decree 181/1994, of October 3, which regulated the management of healthcare waste in the Foral Community. The new text is issued under the foral competence in matters of environment and ecology, pursuant to article 57 of Organic Law 13/1982 on the Reintegration and Improvement of the Foral Regime of Navarra, and develops Law 7/2022, which transposes Directive 2008/98/EC.

The decree is structured into five chapters covering the object and definitions, intra-center and extra-center management, the organization of the activity, and the sanctioning regime. Its objective is to protect public health and the environment, and it affects hospitals, clinics, laboratories, veterinary services, forensic anatomical institutes, funeral establishments, and care and aesthetic treatment centers throughout Navarra.

Five groups of waste

The classification of healthcare waste is reorganized into five groups according to their hazard level and management requirements:

• Group I: waste assimilable to domestic waste, not generated by strictly healthcare activity.
• Group II: non-specific waste, which may be contaminated with biological fluids.
• Group III: specific waste, primarily with a risk of infection, such as sharps, blood, and blood derivatives.
• Group IV: hazardous medicinal waste, including cytotoxic and cytostatic drugs.
• Group V: waste of a chemical nature, such as dental amalgams or anatomical remains preserved with chemical fixatives.

Furthermore, limited production centers are defined as those that generate less than 100 kg per month of waste from groups III to V, which are exempt from preparing a Management Plan.

Storage and treatment deadlines

The decree establishes the maximum intra-center storage periods, calculated from the start of the deposit in the warehouse:

• Group III: up to 72 hours, extendable to one week in limited production centers and up to one month with refrigeration below 4 ºC; vaccines, sharps, or veterinary waste, up to 12 months.
• Group IV: up to 15 days, extendable to one month with refrigeration; sharps or veterinary waste, up to 12 months.
• Group V: up to 6 months, extendable to 12 months for non-hazardous medicines.

Outdoor storage of groups III, IV, and V is prohibited. In off-site management, group III waste must be treated within a maximum period of one week from its collection, extendable to two with refrigeration, and hazardous medicines from group IV via destructive thermal treatment, such as incineration.

Sanctioning regime and adaptation of facilities

Infractions in internal management shall be sanctioned in accordance with chapter VII of title two of Foral Law 10/1990, of November 23, on Health of Navarra, and those occurring in stages outside the center shall also be governed by chapter II of Law 7/2022 and the foral regulations for classified activities. Those responsible must compensate for damages and restore the affected environment.

Existing healthcare waste management facilities will have a period of two years from the entry into force to adapt to the new regulation, and must request from the competent environmental body, within a maximum period of six months, a justified report on how they will carry out said adaptation.

The publication of this decree closes three decades of dispersed regulation and provides Navarra with a unique and updated framework for the management of healthcare waste, with more demanding criteria for segregation, storage, and treatment that directly affect the safety of healthcare professionals and the protection of the environment throughout the Foral Community.

Source: Official Gazette of Navarra, number 176, of September 7, 2026, section I (General Provisions), page 31789 (official reference: Foral Decree 57/2026, of August 19).