Main On-Site Disposal of Medical Waste Methods
Disposal of medical waste includes a number of methods, including on-site and off-site. The difference between the two is whether the health care establishment conducts treatment of the medical waste it generates in its own facility (on-site) or if it sends it somewhere else (off-site).
When it comes to on-site methods of disposal of medical waste, there are three main in use today:
- Autoclaving
- Microwaving
- Chemical treatment
Autoclaving
Autoclaving is a thermal treatment usually used for sharps waste, but can also be used with some other types of medical waste. An autoclave is a machine that uses steam and very high temperatures; much like a pressure cooker (it in fact resembles a large pressure cooker a lot). The steam then penetrates the material and destroys any microorganisms on it.
Today’s autoclaves come in different sizes, from relatively small, 100 liter to large autoclaves capable of holding 4,000+ liters of water used for bulk medical waste treatment in large hospitals and other health care services that generate greater amounts of biomedical waste.
Once the autoclave has done its task and the medical waste has been sterilized with steam, the treated waste can be removed as non-infectious. However, certain wastes cannot be decontaminated in an autoclave. This includes chemotherapy and pharmaceutical waste.
Microwaving
Microwaving or microwave treatment is another on-site method for disposal of medical waste. Basically, this treatment method has a lot of similarities with autoclaving as it also utilizes heat in order to decontaminate biomedical waste.
The difference here is that before microwaving, medical waste will probably need to be shredded and then mixed with water. This is because microwaving systems work best when employed on medical waste that is not completely dry and/or solid. This is where the water comes in to create moisture and allow the heat to penetrate deeper into the waste.
In addition to successfully sterilizing medical waste using microwave treatment, by shredding it health care facilities also reduce the amount of waste they send to landfills.
Chemical Treatment
The third way of treating medical waste on-site is by treating it with certain chemicals. However, while both autoclaving and microwave treatment are generally used for solid medical waste, chemical treatment is used for deactivating liquid biomedical waste. Usually, this is done using calcium oxide, sodium hydroxide or chlorine.
Because liquids pose a risk of spilling, sending them to an off-site facility would be dangerous, so chemical treatment is usually done on-site.
Instead of chemical treatment, which requires expert staff to be conducted and can produce unwanted byproducts, some hospitals employ solidifying agents to turn their liquid waste into solid waste and send it off-site.
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