Determination and Evaluation of the Rate of Solid Wastes Generation in Health Care Centers in Montevideo, Uruguay

Decree 586/009 establishes the main guidelines related to the management of Health Care Wastes (RAS). For this reason, it is used as a reference in the definition of any methodological proposal that intends to address all the aspects related to Intra-institutional Management of Residues generated in Health Care Centers (CAS) in Uruguay. In the first instance, this paper presents an application case based on the experience of previous work in a CAS in Montevideo. Providing special importance to the Evaluation of rates of sanitary waste removal rates in the hospital centers, which were determined based on historical data for the period from 2008 to 2011, referring to rates of removal of contaminated, common and recyclable sanitary waste. Based on the analysis of these data, information on their behavior is obtained, such as: number of common waste removed per day in the period, evolution of the monthly average of the daily rate of removal of common waste, evolution of the average daily waste removal rate from month to month in the period, average daily waste removal rate for each month of the year in the period considered, average daily rate of common waste removal for each day of the week, evolution of the monthly average of the daily rate of removal of contaminated waste, evolution of the monthly average daily withdrawal rate of contaminated waste in the period and mean of the daily rate of removal of contaminated waste for each month of the year in the period considered. Finally, the conclusions of this article present the procedure to perform a weighing campaign, which should be carried out to determine the common and contaminated waste generation rates in each of the main services of the CAS.

Household Solid Waste Generation and Composition: A Case Study in Palapye, Botswana

The purpose of this case study was to conduct a case study in the generation rate, composition, and characterise solid wastes from low, middle and high income households during weekdays and weekends in Palapye, Botswana. The study was conducted through sampling and analysis of the wastes from sampled households from each of the three categories. Palapye village does not have an engineered solid waste management system in place;hence the study can be used as a starting point. The village is rapidly urbanising with many shopping complexes coming up which will generate high amounts of solid wastes of different compositions. The lowest generation rate was 0.038 kg/capita/day from low income households during weekends and the highest was 0.364 kg/capita/day generated from high income households during weekends. The composition of the wastes was dominated by food wastes ranging from 46.44% to 80.78% with low income households generating the highest percentage during weekdays. The average moisture contents of samples from low, middle and high income households were 71% ± 0.0%, 66.3% ± 1.25% and 74.3% ± 2.2% respectively during weekdays compared to 77% ± 0.0%, 66.5% ± 3.5% and 69.3% ± 3.3% during weekends. The average moisture contents from low, middle and high income households were 71% ± 0.0%, 66.3% ± 1.25% and 74.3% ± 2.2% respectively during weekdays compared to 77% ± 0.0%, 66.5% ± 3.5% and 69.3% ± 3.3% during weekends. The results can be used as part of the waste management planning purpose by the Administrative Council of the area.

Characterization of Household Solid Waste and Management in Tripoli City—Libya

Waste stream characteristics must be understood to tackle waste management problem in Tripoli city, Libya. It is recognized that information on both quantity and composition of generation waste is important for the effective planning of household waste handling infrastructure. So, this study is aimed to evaluating the generation, composition and density of household solid waste in Tripoli city, Libya. The study is carried out according to the Annex 2.1 of: WHO 1996. It was conducted during one week in summer, autumn and winter 2011/2012. The daily household solid waste generation assessment has been carried out for 150 Libyan families where 947 people in three main parts of Tripoli city have been chosen randomly. A questionnaire was prepared according to Buenrostro et al. 2001 and Raje et al. 2001 using door-to-door surveying. The result showed that the average of total generation quantity, daily generation rate, total volume and density were 1415 kg, 0.64 kg/person/day, 19.3 m3 and 74.4 kg/m3 respectively in Tripoli city. Household solid waste contains 36.3% organic matter and 32.5% recyclable materials (glass, paper, plastic, metals). The total generation quantity, daily generation rate, total volume and density were in Tripoli city agreed with those for African and Arabic countries. But the problem is that Tripoli suffers from insufficient municipal solid waste management and lack of sanitary landfills.

Quantitative Assessment of Medical Waste Management in Hamad Medical Corporation—Qatar

A proper waste management system is very important in healthcare facilities because the overall benefit outweighs the cost. In the healthcare sector, hazardous health care waste (HHCW) consists of wastes that are potentially contaminated by dangerous agents. Identification and segregation of HHCW is harbinger for its proper management. The quantitative analysis study on HHCW had not been done in Qatar government hospitals. This study quantitatively analyzed the current practice for HHCW management in Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Qatar. The objective of this study is to provide a first comprehensive assessment of hazardous healthcare waste managements in Qatar and offers an opportunity to improve existing practice. This is a retrospective survey study carried out on secondary data collected from the department of occupational health and safety (OHS), HMC. OHS department collects and keeps records of hazardous wastes produced by HMC. Data on the HMC hospitals’ characteristics from 2017 to 2019 were retrieved from Planning and Statistics Authority’s website. World Health Organization (WHO) formula for calculating HHCW generation rate was used to calculate the rate for HMC. Data analysis results show a steady increase in HHCW generation rate in HMC, the generation rate was 2.6 Kg/patient bed/day, 2.8 Kg/patient bed/day and 3.1 Kg/patient bed/day for the years 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively. There were also significant variations in HHCW generation rates between hospitals. The highest generation rate was 4.64 Kg/patient bed/day recorded for AWH and the lowest was 0.2 Kg/patient bed/day recorded for mental health and both hospitals contributing 23.18% and 0.29% respectively of HHCW in HMC.

Diagnostic Analysis of Mechanical Conditions of Small-Scale Incinerators in the Healthcare Facilities in Tanzania

This paper provides analytical diagnosis of mechanical conditions of medical waste incinerators used for healthcare waste (HCW) treatment in Tanzania. The main features assessed were types of incinerators, features of incinerators and incinerator house. The assessment was conducted in three levels of health care facilities (HCFs), that is, Regional, district hospitals and health centers, existed in 26 regions of Tanzania. Questionnaires, interview and checklists were used as tools for data collection. It was observed that High-Tech incinerators are mainly used in regional hospitals, while district hospital and health center use both High-Tech and De-Montfort incinerators. About 60% of the incinerators have defective doors. More than 55% of incinerators are corroded in regional and district hospitals. The chimney, top plates and grate which are good condition are 55.6% and 60% in regional hospitals and health centers, respectively. The situation is below 50% in district hospitals. The leakage of the roof and loose structures were observed in district hospitals and health center to be more than 50% of the incinerator houses. On other hand, the performance of burners and incinerator housing cleanliness are generally good. It was concluded that the incinerators in the HCFs are in bad conditions, necessitating maintenance.