Introduction: Bio-Medical Waste (BMW) consists of solids, liquids, sharps and laboratory waste that are potentially infectious and dangerous. In India, lack of knowledge and practice in relation to availability of resources and processes in place has been reported in many studies. Hence, the present study has been carried out with an objective of assessing awareness and practices of healthcare providers regarding BMW.

Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in tertiary care hospital with 300 beds in Karnataka over a period of one month using preformed, pre-structured proforma.

Results: Almost all health personnel were aware about BMW guidelines; adequate segregation of BMW was noticed in only 4 sites (11.8%).

Conclusion: The awareness about BMW management among healthcare providers in our study was found to be adequate but with low segregation practices. The staffs are well aware to manage the spills and will use if all the sites are provided with spill kits.

Key words: Biomedical waste, color coding, India, tertiary hospital, waste segregation