← All Posts


Ways to Have a Sustainable Medical Waste Management

800px-Waste in Chittagong 01
Hospital waste is divided into four groups. These are sharp, infectious, medical, anatomical. Therefore, there are strict regulations in transporting these. In the UK, the Environmental Agency investigated as to how one NHS contractor failed to transport body parts and other hospital waste properly. As known, hospital waste should be disposed of in particular and separate containers. The kind of waste hospitals produce the most is infectious. These are disposable masks and other personal protective equipment. Since sharp wastes have a fine edge, they can’t go in bags. Instead, they are disposed of in a plastic container to avoid punctures or cuts. Medical waste and body parts and organs are segregated and placed into different plastic containers. For medications, these are segregated into 2. They are either hazardous, which are considered cytostatic or cytotoxic and non-hazardous, which don’t have any of these.The waste should be stored based on its category and not be mixed. Usually, at an NHS facility, the waste is segregated and put in yellow wheeled bins. There are Aside from having a sustainable and safe environment, efforts to have sustainable medical waste management is vital because it also provides best practices and solutions to other healthcare institutions on ways to handle hospital waste properly. Here are some of the ways that hospitals and other healthcare institutions can have sustainable medical waste management. PlanningWhen it comes to managing something, it all begins with a reliable and sound plan. This is the part where actions will be laid out and what the roles will be of the members. A committee can be created, and an officer can be assigned to handle daily monitoring of hospital waste. Institutions should know the type of waste and how much of it is produced for this committee and officer to be efficient. MinimizingWaste management means dealing with waste instead of throwing them. Therefore, Not producing waste is the best method for sustainable waste management. This is impossible, so minimizing waste is the closest solution. One way in doing this is reusing materials that do not compromise the safety of the patient and the health workers. Hospitals can also choose to purchase environmental equipment, such as recyclable containers or thermometers, without mercury.Segregating and DisposalFor the hospital to be clean, practicing proper segregation is a must. This all falls to the one who created the waste. To properly segregate waste, the containers should be color-coded and categorized depending on the trash. Before disposing of the waste, it should undergo appropriate treatment processes.