Say goodbye to waste and lead a healthy lifestyle.

A modern hospital must be a multidisciplinary and complex system which is a part of the physical environment. Thousands of medical items are in the hospital, producing some leftovers as medical waste. Usually, hospitals generate solid and liquid waste, and the inadequate disposal of hospital waste will create risks for public health and the environment. Even residuos sanitarios also create hazards to the public and the environment.

Different types of medical wastes:

Some differences lie between the names and categories of medical waste in every country. For example, in the UK, they classify waste into infectious waste, cytotoxic/cytostatic waste, medicinal waste, anatomical waste, offensive waste and domestic or municipal waste. In SA, wastes are classified into general, infectious, hazardous, and radioactive waste. The world health organisation(WHO) classify wastes into:

1. Infectious waste: the wastes that are infectious and contaminated.
2. Sharps: scalpels, needles, razors and broken glass wastes.
3. Pathological waste: animal or human body parts, fluids, blood and tissues.
4. Pharmaceutical waste: expired or unused drugs and medicines like pills, creams or antibiotics.
5. Genotoxic waste: hazardous toxic and cytotoxic drugs like mutagenic, carcinogenic or teratogenic.
6. Radioactive waste: wastes that contain potentially radioactive materials.
7. Chemical wastes: liquid wastes from batteries, machines and disinfectants.
8. General/other wastes: non-hazardous wastes.

Medical waste streams for safe disposal:

 Understanding the types of medical waste and the procedure to separate and dispose of it safely and effectively to protect healthcare workers, patients, and the public is essential. Each medical waste requires a different technique for disposal method to ensure the infection should not spread to other areas. Some litter can be disposed of in the landfill, and some require treatments like medical incinerators. Most medical wastes are disposed of with incinerator treatment to ensure that all traces of pathogens or infections are destroyed.

Five stages of waste management:

1. Reduce waste at the source:

• Avoid usage of disposal products
• Be a wise and proportionate consumer
• Instead of throwing the products away, try to repair and reuse them.
• Buy second-hand products and clothes
• Avoid using plastics.

1. Reuse:

• Refilling beverage bottles
• Buy and sell second-hand products.

1. Recycling:

• Avoid throwing any products.
• Recycle waste plants into manures

1. Energy recovery:

• Mass burn
• Refuse-derived fuel
• Gasification
• Pyrolysis

1. Landfilling:

Finally, everyone must maintain a healthy environment. It’s not just medical waste that needs to be disposed of properly. It also includes proper disposal of residuos sanitarios, home waste, plant waste etc.