Hospital waste management:

The handling of hazardous, infectious, hospital-generated trash is handled through a system known as hospital
waste management, sometimes known as medical waste management. Since health care waste can be infectious
and environmentally dangerous, effective waste management is essential for healthcare facilities. Neglecting the
correct hospital waste management procedures can put a patient's health at danger, result in penalties, and harm
a hospital's reputation.

This process involves handling the waste from the moment of generation until waste is disposed with securely.
The achievement of an economy based on circularity, where materials used in the healthcare system are utilized
to the fullest extent possible and nearly zero waste is produced, as well as the reduction of garbage going to the
landfill, show the effectiveness of the method used to handle waste.

Following figure shows the steps of the medical waste management system:

Waste Generation

Waste segregation Waste recycling

Waste
disposal

Waste collection Waste treatment

and transportation

 Incineration
 Autoclave Cleaning
 Microwave Disinfection
 Chemical Disinfection

1. Waste Generation:

Different types of waste can be generated by a hospital or clinic. These are infectious waste, sharps waste,
pharmaceutical waste, chemical waste, chemotherapy waste, controlled drugs waste.

The volume of waste generated during this process and how it is managed in order to reduce dangers for the
workers who come into contact with it are crucial factors. It is possible to minimize the waste produced by
medical facilities to prevent waste accumulation. The minimization can be achieved in a variety of ways,
including recycling, stock management, and reducing waste at the source.
2. Waste Segregation:

Segregation identifies the different waste categories and demonstrates how each can be gathered separately.
Segregation is primarily accomplished by placing various medical waste types in bins or bags of the appropriate
color for each category. Medical professionals must get instruction in order to properly dispose of waste in
order to prevent infections. To avoid contaminating the other garbage, a mistake made during waste segregation
shouldn't be fixed. In order to prevent unauthorized human contact, which might spread illnesses, medical waste
must be handled carefully.

3. Waste Collection and Transportation:

To prevent medical waste buildup, which can spread illnesses, the rate of medical waste removal should be as
frequent as once per day. In order to minimize contaminations and illnesses, the workers in charge of collection
should also be outfitted with safety equipment. In order to dispose of, recycle, and treat the trash, it is collected
from the healthcare organization and transferred there using secondary transportation. Either inside the hospital
or in a separate location, there are treatment facilities.

4. Waste Treatment:

This stage is carried out in a facility owned by a Denver-based provider of medical waste disposal services. To
destroy any pathogen culture that may be growing on the trash, it is treated at high heat. The two different
processes that can be used to treat waste are incineration and "autoclave" approaches. The facility cleans any
potentially infectious trash. Additionally, any garbage that can end up being hazardous to the environment is
disposed of or incinerated to ashes.

Several treatment methods for medical waste treatment:

Incineration

Incineration: It can be used to treat all sorts of trash makes it the most extensively used treatment method.
Furnaces that operate at temperatures between 800-1200 °C are used to carry out the incineration process.
Pathogens are eliminated by high temperatures, which also modify the features of trash such as its weight,
volume, and shape.

Autoclave Cleaning

Autoclave disinfection uses both heat and steam to destroy bacteria. In order to provide disinfection, it is run at
a temperature that is lower than incineration, but with steam and pressure effect. To guarantee total waste
disinfection, the working parameters are 60 min at 121 °C and 1 bar, which is followed by a process of 60 min
at 134 °C.

Microwave Disinfection

Low-temperature and powerful microwaves are used in microwave disinfection to reversely polymerize and
degrade organic materials and bacteria.

Chemical Disinfection

Chemical disinfection is a technique used to eradicate germs and fight infections. It is generally utilized for the
treatment of liquid pathogenic wastes like sewage from hospitals, blood, urine, and feces. Bleach solution (1%
concentration) or chlorine solution (0.5%) are the most used chemical disinfectants.

5. Waste Recycling

Utilizing trash or byproducts from production for new or different uses is known as waste recycling. Non-
hazardous waste, the majority of which is generated by the medical industry, is typically disposed of in graves.
Recycling used items like plastics, battery packs, glass, paper, other metallic substances, and silver utilized in
photographic process helps reduce the use of trash dumps and landfills. Composting can be done with food
scraps and other organic waste. After treatment, the fly ash leftover from burning can be utilized in mixtures of
concrete and as building materials. Water for a centralized heating system could be heated using the heat
generated by the incinerator.

6. Waste Disposal

Rejects from the earlier procedures are taken to a clean landfill to be disposed of. Due of their negative
environmental effects, landfills do not represent the best option for processing MW. These consequences
include the release of gases into the atmosphere as a result of waste degradation and soil and water damage
brought on by leachate. Achieving the circular economy ensures that the amount of garbage being disposed of is
kept to a minimum. The main mechanism underlying trash disposal in landfills is long-term breakdown of
waste.

Reference

1. Medical Waste Classification and Management Processes. (n.d.). Medical Waste Classification and
Management Processes | Encyclopedia MDPI. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/37908

2. Hansen, E. (2021, November 8). 5 Stages of Biomedical Waste Disposal Cycle - Medical Systems. Medical
Systems. https://medical-systems.com/5-stages-of-biomedical-waste-disposal-cycle/
M.C.Q

1. Autoclaving and microwaving are done for which of the following types of medical waste
a) Human Anatomical Waste
b) Recyclable Contaminated Waste
c) Cytotoxic Drugs
d) Microbiological Waste
Answer: b
2. All the following waste can be incinerated except
a) reactive chemical waste
b) vaccine
c) mutilated parts
d) discarded drugs
Answer: a

3. Bio hazardous sharps containers must be rigid, leak resistant and puncture proof.
a) True
b) False
Ans: a
4. Which of these is not a biomedical waste?
a) Fumes
b) Syringes
c) Sharp
d) Amputated body parts
Answer: a