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Healthcare waste management in Botswana: storage, collection, treatment and disposal system

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Abstract

Healthcare waste management has become a major issue of concern for solid waste managers due the treatment of healthcare waste being generated and the potential environmental risks and public health risks to those who come in contact with it. Special attention must be paid when dealing with healthcare waste because of infectious and non-infectious waste as well as general waste it contains. If managed through inappropriate healthcare waste management systems, it can adversely affect the environment and public health. In Botswana, the Waste Management Act was introduced in 1998 not only for healthcare waste handling, but also to promote sustainable treatment and disposal; the document currently applies to the management of all the healthcare waste, including liquid and chemical waste. The paper presents an overview of the current healthcare waste management in Botswana. A mixed methods study incorporating an exploratory survey was used. A range of data gathering techniques including observations, informal dialogues, published and grey literature and semi-structured interviews of selected participants and operatives dealing with waste were used to identify key policies, composition, storage, treatment, disposal, challenges and best practices. Specifically, sorting and storage, collection, treatment and disposal systems and the recent regulation of healthcare waste were discussed. Current storage facilities and collection services in the healthcare facilities (HCFs) were not operating effectively and efficiently. The composition was almost the same in the HCFs, with mean values in the following decreasing order: general waste (48.84) >medical waste (39.39 %) >sharps (13.13 %). Therefore, more attention should be paid on segregation of infectious and non-infectious from general waste, pollution prevention and recovery of valuable materials from HCFs. Several suggestions were made to deal with healthcare waste management problems efficiently and to prevent the potential impacts. These included development of a legislation to allow for a more defined roles and responsibilities for healthcare personnel responsible for the handling and disposal of the waste streams at the point of generation in the HCFs. Therefore, there is an urgent need to formulate a more sustainable healthcare waste management system.

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Acknowledgments

The authors highly appreciate the input of their friends for providing language help and proof-reading this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Urban Construction and Environment Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400045, China

    Daniel Mmereki, Andrew Baldwin, Baizhan Li & Meng Liu

  2. International Research Centre of Low Carbon and Green Building, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400045, China

    Daniel Mmereki, Andrew Baldwin, Baizhan Li & Meng Liu

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  1. Daniel Mmereki
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  2. Andrew Baldwin
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Correspondence to Daniel Mmereki.

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Mmereki, D., Baldwin, A., Li, B. et al. Healthcare waste management in Botswana: storage, collection, treatment and disposal system. J Mater Cycles Waste Manag 19, 351–365 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-015-0429-0

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