The document discusses medical waste management techniques. It describes how medical waste should be segregated into infectious, hazardous, and general waste streams. Key techniques discussed include incineration to reduce waste volume, and emerging technologies like grinding and shredding waste followed by sterilization. The document also covers transportation and treatment/disposal of medical waste, noting the need for proper labeling and disposal of different waste types.

3.  Hazards
 Hazardous waste
 Medical waste
 Introduction to Medical waste management
 Medical Waste Management Techniques
1. Segregation
2. Separating Different Categories of Medical Wastes
3. Incineration
4. Emerging Technology
 Transportation
 Treatment & Disposal

4. HAZARDS
 Hazard is a threat to life, health, property,
and environment.

5.  Hazards can be classified in two groups
 Natural Hazards
 Caused by natural processes with negative effects on
living organisms and environment such as floods,
earthquakes, etc.
 Man-made Hazards
 Also called anthropogenic hazard which is caused by
human activities.
 It is also classified in two types:
 Social hazards like war, crime, etc.
 Technological hazards like industrial hazards, power
outage, etc.
 Many natural and mane-made hazards are interrelated.

6. HAZARDOUS WASTE
 Hazardous waste is waste that has
substantial or potential threats to
public health or the environment.
 Hazardous waste is any unwanted material
the disposal of which poses a threat to the
environment, i.e. it is explosive,
flammable, oxidizing, poisonous/
infectious, radioactive, corrosive and/
or toxic/ecotoxic.
 A hazardous waste is a
special type of waste
because it cannot be disposed
of by common means like other
by-products of our everyday lives.

7. MEDICAL WASTE
 Medical waste is a subset of
wastes generated at health care
facilities, such as hospitals, physicians' offices,
dental practices, blood banks, and veterinary
hospitals/clinics, as well as medical research
facilities and laboratories.

8. INTRODUCTION TO MEDICAL WASTE
MANAGEMENT
 Medical waste is limited to infectious, hazardous, and any other
wastes that are generated from health care institutions, such
as hospitals, clinics, dental offices, and medical laboratories.
The management of medical waste has been of major concern
due to potentially high risks to human health and the
environment.
 A survey on Bangladesh hospitals that generate a total of 5562
kg/day of wastes, of which about 77.4% are non-hazardous and
about 22.6% are hazardous. The average waste generation rate
for the surveyed hospital is 1.9 kg/bed/day or 0.5 kg/patient/day.

9.  WHO Report: 85% non hazardous waste
•10% infective waste
 •5% non-infectious but hazardous. (Chemical,
pharmaceutical and radioactive).

10. MEDICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES
 There are several methods to minimize the
hazards resulting from medical waste.
1. Segregation
2. Separating Different Categories of Medical
Wastes
3. Incineration
4. Emerging Technology

11. 1. SEGREGATION
 Segregation is useful since it prevents the
contamination of non-hazardous waste by the
hazardous waste and making the whole waste
stream hazardous.
 Thus, this method will reduce the toxicity and
the volume of the waste stream. Moreover,
segregation makes it easier to transport the
waste.
 Waste is segregated depending on the quantity,
composition, and the disposal method of the
waste stream.

12. BINS FOR SEGREGATION AT SOURCE

13. 2. SEPARATING DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF
MEDICAL WASTES
 In medical centers, infectious and pathological waste,
and sharps are placed in different containers. The
containers are labeled as “biohazard”, closed, water
tight and of uniform color for each type of medical
waste throughout the medical center. The size of the
containers depends on the volume of waste generated
and the containers used are easy to handle and
transport. For used needles specially designed
containers are used.
 The system for segregation, packaging, labeling and
marking involves separating the medical waste into
categories, as described. The packaging is done in
colored bags.

14. 3. INCINERATION
 Incineration is the process of destructing waste by
burning it at elevated temperatures in furnaces. The
process removes hazardous materials, reduces the
mass and volume of the waste and converts it into
ash that is harmless. Incineration is suitable for
wastes that are 60% combustible.
 Incineration is suitable for pathological and
infectious waste or sharp wastes. A mobile
incinerator called “drug terminator” is used for
disposal of pharmaceuticals.
 The advantage of incineration process is that the
volume of the waste that will remain for disposal will
be reduced by 50 - 400 times.

15.  These wastes include both infectious ("red
bag") medical wastes as well as non-infectious,
general housekeeping wastes. The emission
factors presented here represent emissions
when both types of these wastes are combusted
rather than just infectious wastes.

16. 4. EMERGING TECHNOLOGY
 A new technology for management of hazardous
medical waste that transforms the regulated medical
waste into municipal solid waste is recently
introduced. This method involves shredding and
grinding the infectious medical waste bags via sharp
cutting blades that are installed within the vessels. The
blades rotate around 1750 revolutions per minute and
the volume of the shredded waste is reduced by 80%.
The steps included in the process are loading,
shredding, heating, sterilization, cooling, draining,
vacuum and unloading. The whole process is enclosed
in a compact system and there is no intermediate
handling of the waste within the process.

17. TRANSPORTATION
 There should be separate corridor and lift in
hospital to carry and transport waste.
 General waste are deposited at municipal
dumps.
 Waste for autoclaving and incineration are
dumped at separate site for external transport
(should have separate colored plastic bag for
these waste).
 Transportation should be done in sealed
container/sanitation supervisor should ensure
for leakage.

18. TRANSPORTATION

19. TREATMENT & DISPOSAL
 General waste should be dumped at municipal
dumping site. Sanitation officer should be
responsible for proper coordination between
municipal and hospital.
 Label or symbol is useful in identifying waste
for treatment .e g: Risk of corrosion, Danger of
Infection, Toxic hazards, Glass Hazards,
Radioactive materials etc.

20. TREATMENT
 Several options are available for hazardous-waste
management. The most desirable is to reduce the
quantity of waste at its source or to recycle the
materials for some other productive use.
 Hazardous waste can be treated by chemical, thermal,
biological, and physical methods. Chemical methods
include ion exchange, precipitation, oxidation and
reduction, and neutralization. Among thermal methods
is high-temperature incineration, which not only can
detoxify certain organic wastes but also can destroy
them.

21.  Biological treatment of certain organic wastes, such
as those from the petroleum industry, is also an
option. One method used to treat hazardous waste
biologically is called land farming. In this technique
the waste is carefully mixed with surface soil on a
suitable tract of land. Microbes that can metabolize
the waste may be added, along with nutrients.
 The chemical, thermal, and biological treatment
methods outlined above change the molecular form
of the waste material. Physical treatment, on the
other hand, concentrates, solidifies, or reduces the
volume of the waste. Physical processes include
evaporation, sedimentation, flotation, and filtration.