Learning about Medical Waste? Here’s What You Want to Know About its Disposal!

Medical waste is widely categorized into any waste that comes in contact with any bodily fluids or blood. Any waste, liquid or solid, that has been generated while diagnosis or treatment of any human disease. This is the most hazardous waste that needs to be disposed of properly. All health organizations dispose of these wastes responsibly in the safest and most secure manner so as to protect the environment.

Medical waste is also known as Biohazard waste and includes sharps, needles, contaminated towels, gloves, syringes with or without needles, bandages, or any waste material produced from medical care. These wastes, if not treated properly, may harm the environment and its bio-life severely. Hence, many companies offer products or services related to proper medical waste treatment.

Disposing Medical Waste

Firstly, medical waste is made safe by sterilizing it, and those that cannot be sterilized like needles or bandages, need to be made non-hazardous before disposing of. This process is mostly done with autoclaving.

 

In autoclaving, items and equipment are steam sterilized by using very high temperatures that all the items are considered safe for disposal or recycle. This process has become a great alternative to incineration due to environmental and health issues caused due to burning of by-products emitted by incinerators. Although, incineration is still mandatory for pathological waste and other toxic medical waste.

On-Site Medical Waste Treatment

On-site treatment of medical waste is mostly done by big and well-settled hospitals and organizations. On-site treatment is a comparatively expensive treatment due to the equipment used.

Off-Site Medical Waste Treatment

This is a very cost-efficient treatment for all types of medical organizations and hospitals. In this, third-party vendors have the equipment and training required to handle the process. Thus, they collect all the medical waste from all the medical organizations, through truck or mail, and then handle it accordingly.

Truck Services

It requires a contract with a licensed disposal company to carry the waste in special containers for regular disposal.

Mail Services

It uses U.S. Postal Service to ship the medical waste safely for treatment. It needs a well-versed vendor, experienced in all Postal Service regulations.

Final Consideration

Medical waste is considered to be the most hazardous waste as it can severely harm the environment and its bio-life. It is categorized into any medical waste that comes in contact with any bodily fluids or blood, like, needles, syringes, bandages, etc. The medical waste consists of materials that may contain pathogens or bacterias that can harm the bio-life severely. This makes it highly important for medical waste to be treated properly.

There are government regulated methods used for better medical waste treatment like incineration, autoclaving, etc.