A Gap Analysis in Selected Asian Countries, 3R Knowledge Hub ...

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3R Gap Analysis and Findings
HEALTHCARE WASTE
Healthcare waste management in India has been
receiving greater attention due to recent
regulations i.e. Biomedical Wastes Management
& Handling Rules, 1998. The prevailing situation
was analyzed, covering various issues like
quantities and proportion of different
constituents of wastes, handling, treatment and
disposal methods in various healthcare units, and
indicates that the waste generation rate varies
between 0.5 and 2.0 kg/bed/day (Patil and
Shekdar, 2001). It is also estimated that about
0.33 million tons of healthcare waste is generated
in India every year. Solid waste from the hospital
consists of bandages, linen and other infectious
waste (30–35%), plastics (7–10%), disposable
syringes (3–5%), glass (3–5%) and other general
wastes including food (40–45%).
Except a few places, wastes are collected in mixed
form, transported and disposed of along with
MSWs. At many places, authorities are failing to
install appropriate systems for a variety of
reasons, such as non-availability of appropriate
technologies, inadequate financial resources and
absence of professional training on waste
management.
Healthcare waste is a serious problem in India,
where ragpickers get exposed through
contaminated hospital garbage to recover the
glass, paper, plastic and metal that they can sell
for recycling. To protect them and others who
could easily find and reuse contaminated needles
and other medical supplies, a safe system of
disposing of medical waste is urgently needed.
Findings
Healthcare waste technology market is seeing a
steady influx of alternate technologies. There are
already a number of autoclave, hydroclave and
microwave technologies available. Centralized
and shared waste treatment facilities are now
being allowed within legislation, also because of
NGO promotion. Centralized facilities allow not
only for more state-of the art facilities to be
installed, but also help in ensuring that these
adhere to regulatory norms. Instead of resource
strapped pollution control bodies (monitoring
individual stacks in hospitals), centralized
facilities reduce this to a few in the city.
Economies of scale allow for more cost effective
technologies and capacities, besides running in a
scientific manner through trained staff.
Considering that a small percentage of
healthcare waste, consisting of mostly
pathological wastes and body parts, needs to be
incinerated, this can be carried out by sharing
the many existing incinerators in a city. A zonal
or centralized autoclave or microwave
disinfecting unit can then take care of the rest of
the waste.
Healthcare waste management is not only a
technical problem, but is also strongly
influenced by economic conditions. On its own,
enactment of legislation will not make it more
efficient. Sustainable solutions can be achieved
only by involving local bodies engaged in waste
management and making sure they follow the
principles of effective management. Healthcare
waste should be subjected to disinfection and
mutilation prior to reuse, recycling or disposal.
Precautions have to be taken so that disposable
items like needles, syringes, intravenous sets
and other plastic items are not reused. Efforts
have to be made for minimizing waste. An
appropriate plan has to be evolved as per the
prevailing conditions. Instead of incinerating
their waste, hospitals should:
• phase-out the use of PVC plastics and
mercury products;
• reduce, segregate and recycle as much waste
as possible;
• shred contaminated waste for volume
reduction and avoid reuse, and then sterilize
the material using high temperature steam or
microwaving before disposal in dumpsites.
E-WASTE
The government, industry, users and NGOs
have taken notice of the growing hazards of ewaste
and reached a consensus that recycling
and resource recovery has to be environmentally
compatible.
A national Waste Electrical and Electronic
Equipment (WEEE) Task Force was formed in
July 2004. Headed by the Chairman Central
Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the Task Force
consists of representatives from relevant
Government Departments, Ministry of
Information Technology, Regulatory Agencies
(representatives of SPCBs), NGOs, Industry
Associations, experts and producers.