The Three Things You Need to Know About Medical Waste
Updated 06/01/23
Not all trash is the same. While you can simply send general trash, such as expired food from a restaurant or discarded packaging at a retail store, to the local landfill, medical waste requires a different approach. Medical waste can pose a biohazard to people, animals, and the community. As such, it’s crucial to find an approved medical waste company that can dispose of the trash properly.
Consider biohazard sharps disposal. Needles could cause serious injuries if mishandled. If a hospital tossed needles into a general dumpster, workers from the local general waste management company could end up getting jabbed by contaminated needles. A medical disposal company can reduce risks by using medical waste software and specialized equipment. Training is also crucial, and medical waste removers often undergo extensive training to mitigate risks.
If you’re looking for a medical waste management company, you can start your search online. You can search for say North Carolina sharps disposal or dental waste disposal companies. From there, you can reach out for price quotes. Of course, price isn’t the only factor, and medical companies should also consider the quality of service and other factors.
Do you remember the last time you went to the doctor’s? Can you remember how many things the doctor tossed away? A couple pairs of gloves, disposable plastic otoscope bits, and wooden tongue depressors at least. In fact, it probably seemed that he or she was throwing something away every other minute.
It’s not your imagination, either. Hospitals generate a ton of garbage known as medical waste, and it’s kind of a big deal. Here’s what you should probably know about it.
What Is Medical Waste?
There are four different types of medical waste: infectious waste, hazardous waste, radioactive waste, and general waste. Infectious medical wastes can cause infections to humans, and include any sort of blood or blood product. Hazardous hospital wastes can affect humans in non-infectious ways, such as a scalpel, syringe, or other type of sharp. Radioactive hospital wastes are the wastes generated from nuclear medical treatments, like cancer therapies. General hospital wastes, though, aren’t dangerous at all, and are similar to any other sort of household waste. These hospital wastes actually make up at least 85% of all the waste generated at medical facilities.
How Much Medical Waste Is Produced?
Hospitals in the U.S. produce over 5.9 million tons of waste each year, and that’s on the conservative side. Though the vast majority of hospital wastes aren’t dangerous, this still means that 1.77 billion tons of dangerous hospital wastes are produced each year. If these wastes aren’t disposed of properly, they could pose a serious threat to health care practitioners, patients, the public, waste management professionals, and the environment.
How Is Medical Waste Dealt With?
There are two ways to treat medical waste: incineration and autoclaving. Incernation is exactly what it sounds like, using intense heat for the treatment of medical waste. Autoclaving, though, treats medical waste by combining heat pressure and vacuums. Most hospital waste treatment companies use both means to deal with medical waste.
If you have any questions about medical waste, feel free to share in the comments. For more, read this link.
