Waste Reduction & Recycling Tips For Hospitals And Healthcare Facilities

Medical waste is one of the most important types of waste management and reduction for the environment. Hospitals can significantly reduce their waste by combining waste prevention with a comprehensive recycling effort.

Items That Are Recycled In Many Hospitals:

• White office paper

• Corrugated cardboard

• Mixed paper

• Newspapers

• Glass bottles

• Steel cans (used by food service)

• Aluminum cans

• Plastics

When you see the amount of waste generated in a hospital, plastic represents a very large proportion. While much of the plastic used at hospitals has a high value, little of it is recycled. Within facilities, employees need to be made aware of what plastics

are recyclable, and there’s the need for space to collect, sort and store recyclables until they can be picked up. Medical care is vital for our life and health, but the waste generated from medical activities represents a real problem of living nature and human world.

Improper management of waste generated in health care facilities causes a direct health impact on the community, the health care workers and on the environment Every day, relatively large amount of potentially infectious and hazardous waste are generated in the health care hospitals and facilities around the world.

Indiscriminate disposal of BMW or hospital waste and exposure to such waste possess serious threat to environment and to human health that requires specific treatment and management prior to its final disposal.

Biomedical Waste Management

Biomedical waste management has recently emerged as an issue of major concern not only to hospitals, nursing home authorities but also to the environment. The bio-medical waste generated from health care units depend upon a number of factors such as waste management methods, type of health care units, occupancy of healthcare units, specialization of healthcare units, ratio of reusable items in use, availability of infrastructure and resources etc.

The proper management of biomedical waste has become a worldwide humanitarian topic today. Although hazards of poor management of biomedical waste have aroused the concern world over, especially in the light of its far-reaching effects on human, health and the environment. Now it is a well established fact that there are many adverse and harmful effects to the environment including human beings which are caused by the “Hospital waste”
generated during the patient care.

Hospital waste is a potential health hazard to the health care workers, public and flora and fauna of the area. The problems of the waste disposal in the hospitals and other health-care institutions have become issues of increasing concern.

The Government of India (notification, 1998) specifies that Hospital Waste Management is a part of hospital hygiene and maintenance activities. This involves management of range of activities, which are mainly engineering functions, such as collection, transportation, operation or treatment of processing systems, and disposal of wastes.

One of India’s major achievements has been to change the attitudes of the operators of health care facilities to incorporate good HCW management practices in their daily operations and to purchase on-site waste management services from the private sector

World Health Organization states that 85% of hospital wastes are actually nonhazardous, whereas 10% are infectious and 5% are non-infectious but they are included in hazardous wastes. About 15% to 35% of Hospital waste is  regulated as infectious waste. This range is dependent on the total amount of waste generated (Glenn and Garwal, 1999).

Classification Of Bio-Medical Waste

• General Waste

• Radioactive

• Sharps

• Pressurized containers

• Infectious to potentially infectious waste

• Pathological

• Chemical

• Pharmaceuticals

Sources of Biomedical Waste

Hospitals produce waste, which is increasing over the years in its amount and type. The hospital waste, in addition to the risk for patients and personnel who handle them also poses a threat to public health and environment.

Dr. Pradeep Bhardwaj - Executive Director & CEO, Six Sigma Star Healthcare Limited and Global Institute of Healthcare Management, Delhi , an alumnus of IIM- Ahmedabad is renowned hospital and healthcare management expert, recipient of many prestigious awards like - Limca Records holder for being the “Youngest Medical Superintendent” at the age of 26 years, Rajiv Gandhi Award -2010, Padma Award-2012 : Nominated by Chief Minister of Delhi, Youth Odol & Youth Ikon Award : Delhi University, Indian Achiever Award : UAE Govt., and Rashtriya Ratan Award-2009 (first recipient in healthcare management). He was a nominee for young achiever Medical Excellence Award of Infomedia 18 and Listed Top 10 Doctors of India, Listed in 20 most influential people in healthcare. He is also Board of Advisory in many healthcare organizations / management institutes / universities. He was also nominated as jury in the Times of India ‘Lead India’ contest.