health care waste management system

• Highly infectious waste must be disinfected at source.
• Anatomical waste including recognizable body parts, placenta waste, and organs should be disposed through safe burial or cremation.
• Pathological waste must be refrigerated if not collected or treated within 24 hours.
• Sharps must be shredded or crushed before they are transported to the landfill.
• Radioactive waste has to be decayed to background radiation levels.
• Waste minimization; the most important step in the proper management of health care wastes
• Prevent (Waste Prevention) – avail of services that are the least harmful to the environment and to purchase less polluting products
• Reduce (Waste Reduction) – from the source is implemented by encouraging proper waste segregation to determine the nature and volume of generated wastes
• Resource Development • collective term for reusing, recycling, and recovering waste
• Reuse – refers to either finding a new application for a used material or using the same product for the same application repeatedly
• Recycle – refers to the processing of used materials into new products
• Recover – energy recovery or used to encompass three subset of waste recovery: recycling, composting, and energy recovery
• End of Pipe

  • Implemented for waste that cannot be safely reused, recycled or recovered.
• Treat (Waste Treatment) – the process of changing the biological or chemical characteristics of waste to minimize its potential to cause harm
• Dispose (Waste Disposal) – refers to discharging, depositing, placing, or releasing any health care waste into air, land, or water