Hospital hazardous waste management: Treatment, storage and disposal

Abstract

Rapid population growth, industrialization, and growth of demand for raw materials for industrial and medical production result in generating a huge amount of hazardous waste. Hazardous waste is identified by its toxicity, flammability, and radioactivity characteristics. Disposing hazardous waste into the natural environment has a significant impact on health and all living things in the environment. Nowadays, numerous hospitals and industrial places generate a large amount of hazardous waste. The objective of this study is to evaluate the management system of hazardous hospital waste in Erbil city. Additionally, the focus is on hazardous hospital waste management and characterizations and situation of the waste in Erbil city as well. The generation rate of hazardous wastes from hospitals in Erbil city was collected for 12 months from 2015 to 2020. The results showed that the highest amount of medical hazardous waste was generated in 2019. Moreover, the number of onsite incineration centres should be increased to reduce the cost of storage and transportation.