Healthcare and Hospital Waste Management

Healthcare and hospital waste management is regulated by complex legislation aimed at protecting operators and reducing the risks associated with their disposal. The EWC, or European Waste Catalogue, implemented in Italy in 2002 through a Ministry of Environment Directive, classifies healthcare waste into several categories:

• non-hazardous waste comparable to municipal waste
• hazardous waste with infectious risk (HRI) and sharp and pointed HRI waste
• hazardous waste without infectious risk (NON HRI)
• waste requiring special disposal methods

Healthcare waste is produced primarily within hospital facilities and analysis laboratories. In addition to all waste material comparable to municipal waste, these facilities generate a particular type of hazardous waste that presents risks of infection and contamination.

The collection and management of healthcare and hospital waste primarily impacts all healthcare personnel and operators responsible for collection and storage within organizations during their ordinary activities. To identify the most appropriate procedures and practices, the European HCWM project, during the 2015-2017 period, was tasked with defining professional standards and training pathways.

Secondly—which is of greatest interest to us in the context of specialized treatment of this waste—both collection and final disposal are involved. During these phases, there may be a risk of environmental pollution if the treatment does not comply with regulations and the most suitable solutions during disposal and recycling.

Industrial shredders, within specialized facilities, can play an essential role in the volume reduction of special hospital waste.

According to the Special Waste Report published by ISPRA in 2016, approximately 2.5 billion tons of waste are produced in the European Union, of which 96% is non-hazardous and 4% is hazardous. Regarding healthcare waste in Italy, a significant portion is destined for incineration with a waste-to-energy approach.

Healthcare waste incinerated in Italy in 2014, according to the Report, amounted to 110 thousand tons, corresponding to 7.9% of total incinerated waste. Of this, 103 thousand tons was hazardous waste.

The incineration of hospital waste can result in highly polluting atmospheric emissions. New incineration facilities or those upgraded to current regulations ensure, compared to the past, emission levels that are lower by several orders of magnitude. This does not eliminate the presence of highly harmful substances in healthcare waste, such as mercury.

Improving separate collection to isolate certain hazardous fractions of healthcare waste mitigates the problem, though it increases collection costs.

A different strategy could focus on on-site sterilization of hazardous healthcare waste, a method aimed at weight reduction (25%) and volume reduction (75%), waste drying, and significant cost reduction. On-site sterilization represents a self-disposal process practiced within individual healthcare facilities (short supply chain). The process transforms hazardous special waste with infectious risk into waste classifiable as municipal or disposed of appropriately.

As can be seen, healthcare and hospital waste management presents multiple open issues affecting public and private organizations, as well as people and the environment directly. SatrindTech has frequently been contacted to evaluate the integration of its shredders into the industrial waste disposal process, especially for volume reduction for recycling and waste-to-energy purposes. Specifically for hospital waste, our products are capable of shredding vials, metal medical instruments, diapers, healthcare containers of all types and materials, to meet the specific needs of each facility.

Proper management of healthcare and hospital waste and, in general, hazardous waste represents a significant development opportunity, as well as prevention for reducing environmental risks. Together with SatrindTech, you can minimize risks and optimize disposal processes.