Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Assessment of healthcare waste management practices and associated problems in Isfahan Province (Iran)

  • ORIGINAL ARTICLE
  • Published:
Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Few studies have paid close attention to a regional (provincial scale) healthcare waste management, particularly in Iran. An inventory of all 58 healthcare facilities in the province of Isfahan was performed and the results were analyzed using statistical procedures. The results indicated that 36.2, 4.6, and 59.2 % of total wastes produced were infectious, sharp, and general wastes, respectively. Only 20.7 % of medical centers had designated collection vehicles. As for the treatment of medical wastes, only 6.9 % of centers were equipped with autoclave. In terms of tonnage about 10 % of infectious and sharp wastes were treated by incinerators. Collected wastes from 70.7 % of facilities were landfilled in separate trenches, while collected wastes from the remaining 29.3 % centers were disposed together (mixed) with the municipal wastes at the same landfill trenches. The waste generation rates for total waste, general waste, infectious, and sharp wastes were 3.03, 1.84, 0.75, and 0.17 kg/active bed/day, respectively. The main drawbacks of the existing waste management system are the lack of any program for waste minimization, commingling of hazardous and non-hazardous portions of wastes generated at healthcare centers, and the lack of resources (appropriate treatment equipment such as autoclaves and incinerators) and trained personnel.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Geng Y, Ren W, Xue B, Fujita T, Xi F, Liu Y, Wang M (2013) Regional medical waste management in China: a case study of Shenyang. J Mater Cycles Waste Manag. doi:10.1007/s10163-013-0118-9

    Google Scholar 

  2. Patwary MA, O’Hare WT, Street G, Elahi KM, Hossain SS, Sarker MH (2009) Quantitative assessment of medical waste generation in the capital city of Bangladesh. Waste Manag 29:2392–2397

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Shinee E, Gombojav E, Nishimura A, Hamajima N, Ito K (2008) Healthcare waste management in the capital city of Mongolia. Waste Manag 28(2):435–441

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Da Silva CE, Hoppe AE, Ravanello MM, Mello N (2005) Medical wastes management in the south of Brazil. Waste Manag 25:600–605

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Patil GV, Pokhrel K (2005) Biomedical solid waste management in an Indian hospital: a case study. Waste Manag 25:592–599

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. HCWH (2001) Non-incineration medical waste treatment technologies. Health Care Without Harm, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  7. Pruss A, Giroult E, Rushbrook P (1999) Safe management of wastes from health-care activities. World Health Organization, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  8. Galtier L, Bekaert C (2002) Healthcare waste management on an international scale. Appropriate environmental and solid waste management and technologies for developing countries, vol 1. ISWA, Istanbul, pp 289–294

    Google Scholar 

  9. Lee CC, Huffman GL (1996) Medical waste management/incineration. J Hazard Mater 48:1–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Mohee R (2005) Medical wastes characterization in healthcare institutions in Mauritius. Waste Manag 25:575–581

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Tanaka M, Kaneko K, Takahara N, Stella A (2003) Strategic Management of Healthcare wastes in Japan. In: Sustainability in a New World, ISWA World Congress, Melbourne

  12. Bdour A, Altrabsheh B, Hadadin N, Al-Shareif M (2007) Assessment of medical wastes management practice, a case study of the northern part of Jordan. Waste Manag 24:746–759

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Karaka Y (2002) Management of clinical wastes. Appropriate environmental and solid waste management and technologies for developing countries, vol 1. ISWA, Istanbul, pp 303–312

    Google Scholar 

  14. Demir A, Sengiri RB, Ozlenkeya B (2003) The management of medical wastes in Istanbul. Sustainability in a new world. ISWA World Congress, Melbourne, pp 283–288

    Google Scholar 

  15. Birpinar ME, Bilgili MS, Erdogan T (2009) Medical waste management in Turkey: a case study of Istanbul. Waste Manag 29:445–448

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Patil AD, Shedkar A (2001) Health care waste management in India. J Environ Manag 63(2):211–220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Rahman M, Ahmed N, Sneha U (1999) A study on hospital waste management in Dhaka city. In: 25th WEDC Conference, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

  18. Cheng YW, Sung FC, Yang Y, Lo YH, Chung YT, Li K (2009) Medical waste production at hospitals and associated factors. Waste Manag 29:440–444

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Taghipour H, Mosaferi M (2009) Characterization of medical waste from hospitals in Tabriz, Iran. Sci Total Environ 407:527–1535

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Askarian M, Vakili M, Kabiri G (2004) Results of a hospital waste survey in private hospitals in Fars province, Iran. Waste Manag 24:347–352

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Mato RR, Kassenga GR (1997) A study problem of management of medical solid wastes in Dar Es Sallam and their remedial measures. Resour Conserv Recycl 21:1–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The author is thankful to the staff of Isfahan Department of Environment for the help with collection of results.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Majid Sartaj.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 14 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sartaj, M., Arabgol, R. Assessment of healthcare waste management practices and associated problems in Isfahan Province (Iran). J Mater Cycles Waste Manag 17, 99–106 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-014-0230-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-014-0230-5

Keywords

Navigation