What Happens to Medical Waste Once It Leaves the Hospital?
7/5/2022
Do you ever wonder what happens to medical waste once it leaves the hospital? As much as medical facilities try to help in saving lives, they produce lots of medical waste that need to be handled with caution and care.
Improper handling of medical waste may lead to contamination, posing health risks to those exposed to them and environmental dangers.
Where Does the Medical Waste Go?
Where the waste goes depends on its types, uses, and possible contamination. Here's a look at the different kinds of medical waste and what happens to them after leaving the facilities' premises:
• Infectious Waste
They include laboratory cultures, blades, needles, body fluids, and blood. They are separately gathered and placed in tubs with special markings. The tubs are lined with red bags to ensure the waste won't leak during transport. The tubs are collected in a biohazard room, where they are picked up and disposed of properly.
They pertain to medicine packaging, plastic thermometer caps, food scraps, paper trash, and other simple waste. They go through a sorting phase wherein they are categorized as to be reused or to be recycled. The trash that did not fit the categories is thrown into a landfill like ordinary garbage.
They include body parts and human organs. They are gathered in separate containers before deciding which of the following methods can be used to decontaminate them:
• Plasma Pyrolysis
• Microwave Irradiation
• Autoclaving
• Incineration Technology
Final Thoughts
Medical waste has to go through the proper methods of sorting and decontamination before and after leaving the premises of a hospital. What happens next depends on what kinds of waste they are and their potential hazard to people's health and the environment.