No matter where the waste management is happing, the process and methods of waste management are similar everywhere. As there are different types of medical waste, thus we need specific measures to break down the bacteria and harmful toxins.
Proper hospital waste disposal should be done as it leads to infection transmission and increases the chances of more diseases to the patients. Poor infection control or waste management can be a bad sign for your hospital’s reputation. One must know about the methods of medical waste disposal while hiring the services of hospital waste management.
Methods of Waste Management
Incineration
This is a thermal process that employs the combustion of waste under high temperatures. The process converts the waste into gases and inert materials. The machinery of incineration can be electrical or oil-fired.
Rotary kilns, multiple hearth types, and controlled air types are the three main incinerations used for managing hospital waste. These include primary and secondary combustion chambers for optimal combustion.
Non-Incineration
This treatment includes different types of the process such as irradiative, chemical, thermal, and even biological. The methods generally include chemical and thermal technologies, and the process aims to destroy pathogens to decontaminate waste.
Autoclaving
The process works on the standard principle of the pressure cooker and involves steaming at high temperatures. The waste material is steamed at a high temperature to kill and remove all the microorganisms present in the hospital waste.
Autoclaving method is more effective on biotechnology waste, microbiology, sharps, solid wastes, and soiled waste. This treatment also has different types that are:
- Gravity: In this, the air is evacuated only with gravity. The process continues for 60 to 90 minutes and contains a steam pressure of 15 psi. The machines operate at a temperature of 121 degrees.
- Pre-vacuum: To reduce the timing of the process, sometimes the air is evacuated by vacuum pumps. This only takes 30 to 60 minutes for hospital waste disposal. It is operated at a higher temperature than gravity at 132 degrees.
- Retort: Both this and the pre-vacuum are designed to operate at higher steam pressure and temperature.
Plasma Pyrolysis
It is an art technology and is considered a safe method for medical waste disposal that is because it is environment friendly. One can convert organic waste to commercially useful byproducts through this.
Plasma enables all kinds of waste, like biomedical, municipal solid waste, and hazardous waste, gets disposed of by producing intense heat. When the waste comes in contact with the plasma, it gets pyrolyzed into H2, CO, and hydrocarbons, which generate high temperatures and burn these gases.
Final Words
Those, as mentioned above, are some of the standard techniques used to eliminate and dispose of medical waste. One needs to classify their waste first to dispose of them effectively because if you use the wrong process, then it can generate a substance that cannot be disposed of. For hospitals, it’s convenient to higher hospital waste management services for quick and easy waste disposal.
