The overlap of state and federal laws and recommendations from standard bearers such as the Joint Commission and AORN leave little wiggle room with regard to your waste disposal processes. Most of what you need to do to stay in compliance is dictated for you, making protocol-writing easy. If you follow these guidelines to the letter, you're sure to get the right trash in the right bags ' and yet, you may be missing many opportunities to prevent infections in your facility. Here we'll dig a little deeper into how you dispose of waste, particularly fluids, to understand how pathogens can potentially make the jump from waste to wound.