ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To understand the status of generation and management of medical waste in medical institutions of Chongqing. METHODS: By means of onsite investigation and questionnaire survey, the generation categories and current status of management of medical waste in 50 medical institutions were investigated from Oct 2021 to Apr 2022 the existing limitations and prominent problems in the whole-process management of medical waste were identified so as to enable the safe disposal of medical waste based on laws and regulations. RESULTS: The average pollutants generation coefficient of medical waste was 0.22-0.72 kg/bed.day among all the grades of hospitals, the average pollutant generation coefficient of medical waste was 0.28-2.30 kg/10 people among grass-root medical institutions. The management of medical waste was more standardized in tertiary hospitals. There were a variety of problems in management of medical waste in clinics and village clinics, such as nonstandard classification of medical waste, unreasonable site selection for temporary storage of medical waste, unsatisfactory transportation means and untimely collection and transportation of medical waste. The problems of chemical, pharmaceutical and pathological medical waste were more prominent. The costs of disposal of medical waste were not strictly implemented in accordance with standards. The packaging, storage, loading, handover and disinfection of COVID-19 medical waste have been carried out in accordance with regulations. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to further standardize the management of medical waste, explore and formulate the collection and transportation modes of medical waste in primary medical institutions, intensify the supervision of classification, collection, storage, transportation and disposal of medical waste, optimize and upgrade the medical waste management information system, and encourage subsidies for the disposal of medical waste in Chongqing medical waste disposal enterprises during the COVID-19 period.
ABSTRACT
Approximately 75,000 tonnes of durian seeds are disposed to the environment every year and the amount will continue to increase due to the escalating demand for durians. The long-term accumulation of the wastes will lead to destruction of the ecological environment, and the disposal requires considerable effort. In fact, valuable products including durian seed gum and flour could be processed from the discarded durian seeds and hence, they should not be regarded as wastes. At the same time, the value of food wasted every year exceeds 1 trillion USD, of which 20% is caused by storage or shelf-life issues. After the outbreak of COVID-19, consumers tend to reduce the number of trips required to get fresh foods from the markets. Eventually, storage of larger amount of foods at extended period time is crucial. Thus, safe and effective food preservation materials extracted from these biomasses could potentially help in reducing food wastes. Natural deep eutectic solvent (NADES) is a green solvent composed of primary metabolites (PRIM). When combined with gum into the form of eutectogel, the characteristics are tunable indicating that the properties of natural durian seed gum can be further improved for specific application. This paper discusses the potential of eutectogels formulated using NADES and durian seed gum for use as food coating. Since the coated gel is edible, potentially low in cost, and strongly sustainable, the food preservation period can be lengthened at higher commercial value.