It is crucial to know about various methods to manage medical waste. The reason is that hospital waste disposal may be causing high contamination and infection. In order to maintain hygiene, management of waste disposal is a necessary task. It can be done through a number of methods that hospital staff should know to reduce the risk. When it comes to biohazard waste, many people look for the way to manage it as it can be harmful to hospital staff, patients, and the environment.
Autoclaving
Autoclaving or thermal treatment is generally used for certain kinds of infectious waste like sharps. An autoclave is placed in a bigger pressure cooker which uses high steam and temperature to kill microorganisms. In addition, it can deeply penetrate all kinds of waste materials. It completely depends on the total amount of the waste and its particular type in order to sterilize so that one can buy the appropriate size of an autoclave.
The range of autoclave volume varies from 100 liters to 4,000 liters or more that one can use for bulk waste management. To minimize human involvement, the latest autoclaves come with automated functions to provide convenience to people. All kinds of medical waste, including decontaminated sharps that have been autoclaved, can be disposed of easily with an autoclaving method. However, people should remember that all types of waste material can be disposed of with this method except the following:
- Pharmaceutical waste
- Chemotherapy waste
Microwave Treatment
A microwave treatment method is much similar to an autoclave. It mainly uses heat to decontaminate the medical waste. This specific treatment is best for those waste materials which are not completely solid and dry, as they can be easily disposed of via this method.
The reason is that the moisture enables the heat to steam sterilizes and penetrate deeper. In addition, a lot of medical waste must be mixed and shredded with water before microwaving to get the desired effect. The best thing is that shredding reduces the waste volume.
Chemical Treatment
The chemical treatment method is generally utilized to deactivate liquid waste. It is designed to deactivate and decontaminate specific waste materials in the hospital instead of packaging and sending them to any other facility. It is a good idea to treat liquid waste materials in generation sites as they are highly susceptible to medicines.
In addition, chemical treatment may also be applied to various non-liquid waste materials. However, it is essential to shred them first in order to ensure that all waste portions are exposed to all chemicals. Chemicals like sodium, calcium oxide, chlorine, or sodium hydroxide may be used to dispose of, but it completely depends on the specific kind of waste material.
After applying them, it may also be possible that these chemicals can produce off-gas dangerous VOCs as well as undesirable by products. In addition, it is necessary to use all safety measures while using chemical methods to dispose of the waste materials and make sure the workers must be knowledgeable.
