Why incinerating biomedical waste benefits us all

What is biomedical waste?

Biomedical waste covers a wide range of used medical equipment. These can potentially be infectious so they need to be disposed of responsibly. Some common and well known biomedical waste items are syringes and needles, IV sets, Urine bags, culture dishes and more. These items simply can’t be re-used in any manner once they’ve been administered initially. Biomedical waste can be in liquid or solid form such as discarded blood or extracted bodily fluids.

This waste is a by-product of medical processes conducted in hospitals – items are used in operations, during on-going treatment and for diagnosing conditions.Responsible waste management when it comes to biomedical products is in the general principles of hygiene and sanitation. Initially when using the products, good housekeeping prevents spread of disease from the products before they get to the stage where they need to be disposed of and incinerated.

The 4 categories that medical waste falls under are General, Infectious, Hazardous and Radioactive. Biomedical waste is incinerated in either a hospital incinerator or through industry standard biomedical waste incinerators. These are complex machines that were designed to effectively and responsibly dispose of these materials in a manner that would prevent any spread of disease.

Why does it need to be incinerated?

In simple terms, biomedical waste essentially is classed as a biohazard because of the potential of the spread of disease. Depending on what category of biomedical waste the item falls under it could potentially be spreading radioactive waste such as the by-products of the chemotherapy process. If animals get hold of biomedical materials left out in the open this could then be spread to humans. With the number of people living in dense area, particularly in cities this could easily spiral out of control and become a major incident that would be difficult to manage for the authorities.

The responsibility of managing biomedical waste falls to the hospitals that produce the waste and they have strict processes in place to separate different types of waste. This is because there are different types of waste which need to be treated differently; for example, waste from processes such as chemotherapy will need to be separated from items such as needles and scalpels.

Where should be using this technology?

The process is required in any hospital including Military hospitals however, recent studies have found that the system of disposal found in a typical field hospital is often far from ideal and below what you’d find in a typical hospital.  This can sometimes be down to a lack of resources or that the hospital may be located in a war zone.

However, sometimes it is because the processes haven’t been stuck to rigidly enough or implemented properly. INCINER8 have started to change this through their provision of medical waste solutions to countries across Africa and Asia. We work closely with military organisations ensuring their waste solutions are up to scratch and protecting the local environment where they operate.