Waste was a 2-1B surgical droid serving on the Imperial prison barge known as Purge in 1 BBY. He worked alongside the ship's chief medical officer, Zahara Cody, trying to cure the crew and prisoners of Purge from the unusual illness that came aboard after they tried to recover the Imperial Star Destroyer called Vector. The infection killed everyone except six people on the Purge, and the medical droid helped Dr. Cody try to get away from the Purge, but he was destroyed by the strangely revived bodies of those who died from the infection.
Dr. Cody later came across another 2-1B on the Star Destroyer Vector that resembled Waste, but it was actually a completely different 2-1B unit.