Biomedical waste management

OR
Hospital waste management
Definition of biomedical waste management

According to Gazette of India, “biomedical or hospital waste is the waste generated during
diagnosis, treatment or Immunization of human beings or animals or in resource activities”.

Classification of hospital waste

Generally, hospital waste are classified into hazardous and non-hazardous waste.

Hazardous waste - hazardous waste can be further classified into infectious waste and other
hazardous waste.

 Infectious waste contains non-sharps, sharps, plastic disposables and liquid waste.

 Other hazardous include radioactive, cytotoxic, glass waste and incineration waste.

Non-hazardous waste - Non-hazardous waste is non infectious waste, it can be dumb directly
without any pretreatment.

Example - domestic waste, food waste, hygiene waste, packaging waste, recycling waste etc.

Categories of biomedical waste are

 Human anatomical waste - human tissue, organs and body parts.

 Animal waste - Animal tissue, organs, body parts, fluid, blood, experimented animals.

 Microbiology and biotechnology waste - waste from laboratory cultures, stocks,

specimens, live or attenuated vaccines and cell cultures.

 Sharp waste - Needles, syringes, scalpels, blades, glass etc.

 Solid waste - items contaminated with blood and body fluids includes cotton, dressing,
beddings.

 Waste generated from disposable items such as tubings, catheters, and intravenous
sets etc.

 Liquid waste - waste generated from laboratory.

 Incineration ash - ash from incineration of biomedical waste.

  Chemical waste - chemicals used in disinfection etc.

 Discarded medicines and cytotoxic drugs.

Treatment of Medical waste

 Medical waste segregated in bags of different color and appropriate treatment need to
carry out and disposed.

 Some of the methods used for the treatment are_

Chemical disinfection: Disinfection is done for the following categories of waste such as
sharp waste, disposable infectious plastics, infection glass wares and blood specimen.

Example - for effective disinfectant is hypo chlorites.

Liquid waste: Pathological, chemical and toxic liquid waste should be appropriately treated
with disinfections or reagents and neutralised before flushing into the sewer.

Sharp decontaminating unit: Sharp waste in a puncture proof container and filled with
hypochlorite.

Shredder - Infected plastics are first autoclaved and then recycled.

Autoclave: Waste arising from laboratories such as cultures and stocks must be autoclave
before disposal by incineration.

Incineration: Pathological waste such as body parts of humans and animals are incinerated.

Microwave: It is a special treatment to treat most infectious waste except body parts,
cytotoxic waste etc.

Deep burial: Materials after chemical disinfection are put in deep trenches, covered with lime
and filled with soil.