ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 has placed pandemic modeling at the forefront of the whole world's public policymaking. Nonetheless, forecasting and modeling the COVID-19 medical waste with a detoxification center of the COVID-19 medical wastes remains a challenge. This work presents a Fuzzy Inference System to forecast the COVID-19 medical wastes. Then, people are divided into five categories are divided according to the symptoms of the disease into healthy people, suspicious, suspected of mild COVID-19, and suspicious of intense COVID-19. In this regard, a new fuzzy sustainable model for COVID-19 medical waste supply chain network for location and allocation decisions considering waste management is developed for the first time. The main purpose of this paper is to minimize supply chain costs, the environmental impact of medical waste, and to establish detoxification centers and control the social responsibility centers in the COVID-19 outbreak. To show the performance of the suggested model, sensitivity analysis is performed on important parameters. A real case study in Iran/Tehran is suggested to validate the proposed model. Classifying people into different groups, considering sustainability in COVID 19 medical waste supply chain network and examining new artificial intelligence methods based on TS and GOA algorithms are among the contributions of this paper. Results show that the decision-makers should use an FIS to forecast COVID-19 medical waste and employ a detoxification center of the COVID-19 medical wastes to reduce outbreaks of this pandemic. © 2023, Crown.
ABSTRACT
As a global concern, medical waste (MW) links public health, environmental pollution, and resource sustainability. This study aims to assess the two issues related to medical waste in Bahrain: the increasing generation rate of MW and its management. The integrated Environmental Assessment (IEA) methodology was adopted, including the DPSIR (Drivers, Pressures, State, Impact, Responses) framework, analysis of existing policies, and the outlook. Consequently, data were collected from official health statistics in Bahrain, and related policies for the last two decades (2001 to 2021) were also collected, in addition to interviews with Bahrain medical waste (BMW) treatment company. The results show a vast increase in medical waste during COVID-19. Moreover, most of the existing policies address the impact of the BMW issues, but the policies are lacking in tackling the drivers and pressures;there is also a policy gap related to the generation rate. Accordingly, a set of policies was proposed to overcome the two medical waste issues. Moreover, to overcome issues associated with MW, the study recommended reforming regulations aiming to reduce and manage medical waste efficiently in order to focus more on drivers and pressure causing an elevation in MW issues in Bahrain. © 2023 by the authors.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has been affecting world economies, business revenues, and the livelihood of many individuals, and has also resulted in accumulated medical waste. Countries, governments, and health workers are striving to contain this virus by applying different strategies and protocols. This research investigates and identifies the significant determinants that influence the acceptance and Adoption of non-hazardous medical waste recycling behaviour in Kuwait. This article questions whether healthcare workers in Kuwait are actually behaving differently regarding non-hazardous medical waste recycling during the pandemic as opposed to previously. The study uses a deductive research approach involving a quantitative methodology by applying the theory of planned behaviour as a framework. From an overall perspective, individuals have positive intentions and behaviours toward recycling. However, COVID-19 and the fear of spreading the virus had a positive impact on the healthcare workers' recycling behaviour in public hospitals in Kuwait. © 2022 IGI Global. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Medical wastes include all solid and liquid wastes that are produced during the treatment, diagnosis, and immunisation of animals and humans. A significant proportion of medical waste is infectious, hazardous, radioactive, and contains potentially toxic elements (PTEs) (i.e., heavy metal (loids)). PTEs, including arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg), are mostly present in plastic, syringes, rubber, adhesive plaster, battery wastes of medical facilities in elemental form, as well as oxides, chlorides, and sulfates. Incineration and sterilisation are the most common technologies adopted for the safe management and disposal of medical wastes, which are primarily aimed at eliminating deadly pathogens. The ash materials derived from the incineration of hazardous medical wastes are generally disposed of in landfills after the solidification/stabilisation (S/S) process. In contrast, the ash materials derived from nonhazardous wastes are applied to the soil as a source of nutrients and soil amendment. The release of PTEs from medical waste ash material from landfill sites and soil application can result in ecotoxicity. The present study is a review paper that aims to critically review the dynamisms of PTEs in various environmental media after medical waste disposal, the environmental and health implications of their poor management, and the common misconceptions regarding medical waste.
Subject(s)
Medical Waste Disposal , Medical Waste , Mercury , Metals, Heavy , Refuse Disposal , Animals , Humans , Incineration , Metals, Heavy/analysis , Hazardous Waste/analysis , Solid Waste/analysisABSTRACT
Waste management has come to the fore in the whole world with the increasing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic along with concerns about human health, environmental threats, and socio-economic factors, etc. Medical waste is one of the waste types that need special management processes including particularly collection, storage, separation, and disposal. Healthcare activities create a great amount of medical waste deriving from the hospitals. This study aims to determine the hospital that carries out medical waste management in the most effective way in Erzurum, Turkey. To handle intense uncertainty in the evaluation process, the case is analyzed by Intuitionistic Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (IFMCDM) methods. The present study contributes to the literature by focusing on a real case problem under IF environment in a Group Decision-Making (GDM) framework. Additionally, based on the literature review and expert judgments, the evaluation criteria relevant to the case are defined in this paper. To this end, a four-phased integrated methodology that involves Intuitionistic Fuzzy Weighted Averaging (IFWA), IF Analytical Hierarchy Process (IFAHP), IF Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (IFTOPSIS) and One-Dimensional Sensitivity Analysis, is conducted. Firstly, IFWA is aimed to express the significance levels of decision makers (DMs) based on their knowledge, qualifications and experiences. Secondly, IFAHP is used to calculate the importance weights of the decision criteria and IFTOPSIS is preferred to rank the available hospitals. Then, sensitivity analysis is employed to display robustness. According to the results, the most important criteria are Qualified personnel, Health institution infrastructure, and Control of waste, respectively and the most efficient hospital is determined.
ABSTRACT
This paper aims to critically review the production of alternative fuels through medical plastic waste. In the recent past, medical plastic waste has been disposed of and incinerated in the dumping yards, which is the main cause of the threat of infection and environmental hazards. Adopting proper waste management and the appropriate technology like the 5R's (refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, and recycle) may significantly improve the ecosystem. Moreover, the 5R's is a comprehensive approach that can be applied, either awareness of stakeholders or enforcement mandate and regulation by the government. The current review suggested the possible route for converting medical-plastic waste into drop-in fuel and value-added products to minimize the waste through suitable technology. In this, the pyrolysis technique plays an important role which is more ecologically friendly, effective and produces minimal pollutants. It has been observed that using COVID medical waste management (CMWM) technology, 70–80 % plastic pyrolysis oil (PPO), 10–15% bio-char, and gaseous fuel can be extracted. As per the ASTM, the extracted PPO is a potential feedstock for the CI engine fuel. This review work provides a suitable solution for CMWM and improves the quality of medical infrastructure for sanitation in a sustainable mode. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd
ABSTRACT
Medical waste deserves particular attention due to its potential for causing serious damage to people and the environment. Although the factors influencing the generation of medical waste are critical for designing policies aimed at effectively reducing medical waste and improving medical waste management, they have not been extensively studied. The rapid development of China's medical and health services and the sudden outbreak of Covid-19 have brought significant challenges to managing medical waste in China. Therefore, based on panel data from eight cities in China from 2013 to 2019, this study used a fixed-effects model to investigate the influencing factors of medical waste generation (MWG) in China, and tested the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. The results show that there is a non-linear N-shaped curve relationship between MWG and per capita gross domestic product (GDP);MWG will continue to increase with economic growth, but the growth rate will slow down from fast to slow, and then from slow to fast with economic growth. The analysis also reveals that implementing a tiered diagnosis and treatment policy may negatively affect MWG by reducing the waste of medical resources and thus reducing the generation of medical waste. The positive effect of population size on MWG is also highly significant, so when the aging of the population increases, the generation of medical waste also increases. The three policy suggestions are provided: 1) improve the disposal capacity and efficiency of medical waste;2) give full play to the advantages of hierarchical diagnosis and treatment policy;3) improve the management level of medical waste in primary medical institutions. © 2023
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the ecosystem all around the planet. Medical waste management, in particular, is critical during this pandemic because of its direct influence on human health and the environment. The goal of this study is to assess medical waste management in Diyala, an Iraqi governorate, during the COVID-19 pandemic and its potential role in the transmission of the Corona virus. To perform this study in a methodical manner, a questionnaire was created and distributed to 260 COVID-19 patients from different sectors of Diyala of various socioeconomic backgrounds and educational levels who were quarantined at their homes, hospitals, and special isolation facilities for adequate treatment. In this regard, the influences of the income and educations levels on quarantined location, use of disposable products and discharging waste's method are statistically analysed. The findings reveal that waste collection and incineration processes in Diyala have not changed significantly after the Corona virus outbreak. In other words, the medical waste collected from hospitals and isolated areas was separated and burned in violation of environmental regulations. Furthermore, due to a lack of instructions and direction, the medical waste of the majority of COVID-19 patients who isolated themselves at home was not adequately handled or placed in sterilized bags. As a result, there is a significant danger of the COVID-19 spreading. © 2022 Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, Romania. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
In the study, a multi-purpose reverse logistics network has been designed to create effectual management of medical waste (MW) generated in 39 districts of Istanbul, a heavily populated city, during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as that to be generated in the next decade. With the model, the medical waste management system in Istanbul is analyzed during the pandemic and for the next 10 years. The model attempts to integrate economic, environmental, and social objectives within the sustainable development goals. It aims to maximize the number of personnel and government earnings for the estimated MW of a megacity while minimizing the total fixed cost and the cost of carbon emissions and transportation. The results indicated that the existing facilities are sufficient for the treatment and disposal of MW generated even under pandemic conditions. However, the capacity of the sterilization facility could be insufficient to treat the estimated amount of MW in the next decade. Opening a sterilization facility near the sanitary landfill in Komurcuoda with a total management cost of 62,450,332 /year would be an optimum solution for Istanbul MW. In comparison to the single-purpose model results, the multi-purpose model resulted in approximately 42,000 more in total cost. Sensitivity analyses show that the amount of MW has the most significant effect on the total cost. This simple model created an effective MW management proposal for Istanbul, which can be a model for megacities. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10669-022-09873-z.
ABSTRACT
Emerging economies are struggling with proper and efficient management of waste due to their constrained resources and weak management. In recent days, this crisis has worsened due to the outbreak of the highly contagious COVID-19 pandemic. To avoid building up stockpiles and contaminating communities with potentially contagious medical waste (MW), and to ensure sustainability in the current and post-COVID-19 era, it is a dire need to develop and implement a safe and efficient medical waste management (MWM) system. This research, thereby, aims to identify, assess, and prioritize the key challenges to efficient and sustainable MWM to mitigate the impacts of the disruptions caused by situations like the pandemic in emerging economies. An integrated approach consisting of the Best-Worst Method (BWM), Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM), and Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification (MICMAC) has been proposed to achieve the objectives. Based on the literature review and expert feedback, a total of seventeen challenges were identified and later prioritized by using BWM. The top twelve challenges have been further analyzed using ISM-MICMAC to examine their interrelationships. This study reveals that lack of proper law enforcement and insufficient financial support from investors and the government are two crucial challenges for efficient MWM implementation. The research insights can assist healthcare facility administrators, practitioners, and city managers in identifying the associated challenges and shaping strategic decisions for establishing and managing efficient MWM systems to ensure sustainable development in the post-COVID-19 era.
ABSTRACT
Medical waste deserves particular attention due to its potential for causing serious damage to people and the environment. Although the factors influencing the generation of medical waste are critical for designing policies aimed at effectively reducing medical waste and improving medical waste management, they have not been extensively studied. The rapid development of China's medical and health services and the sudden outbreak of Covid-19 have brought significant challenges to managing medical waste in China. Therefore, based on panel data from eight cities in China from 2013 to 2019, this study used a fixed-effects model to investigate the influencing factors of medical waste generation (MWG) in China, and tested the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. The results show that there is a non-linear N-shaped curve relationship between MWG and per capita gross domestic product (GDP);MWG will continue to increase with economic growth, but the growth rate will slow down from fast to slow, and then from slow to fast with economic growth. The analysis also reveals that implementing a tiered diagnosis and treatment policy may negatively affect MWG by reducing the waste of medical resources and thus reducing the generation of medical waste. The positive effect of population size on MWG is also highly significant, so when the aging of the population increases, the generation of medical waste also increases. The three policy suggestions are provided: 1) improve the disposal capacity and efficiency of medical waste;2) give full play to the advantages of hierarchical diagnosis and treatment policy;3) improve the management level of medical waste in primary medical institutions.
ABSTRACT
This paper aims to critically review the production of alternative fuels through medical plastic waste. In the recent past, medical plastic waste has been disposed of and incinerated in the dumping yards, which is the main cause of the threat of infection and environmental hazards.Adopting proper waste management and the appropriate technology like the 5R’s (refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, and recycle) may significantly improve the ecosystem. Moreover, the 5R’s is a comprehensive approach that can be applied, either awareness of stakeholders or enforcement mandate and regulation by the government. The current review suggested the possible route for converting medical-plastic waste into drop-in fuel and value-added products to minimize the waste through suitable technology. In this, the pyrolysis technique plays an important role which is more ecologically friendly, effective and produces minimal pollutants. It has been observed that using COVID medical waste management (CMWM) technology, 70–80 % plastic pyrolysis oil (PPO), 10–15% bio-char, and gaseous fuel can be extracted. As per the ASTM, the extracted PPO is a potential feedstock for the CI engine fuel. This review work provides a suitable solution for CMWM and improves the quality of medical infrastructure for sanitation in a sustainable mode.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19's developing trend has put the waste management systems of governments all over the world in jeopardy. The increasing rise of infectious medical waste has now become a serious problem. This paper presents a multi-period multi-objective model for designing a medical waste management system during the COVID-19 pandemic. The model aims to reduce total costs of infectious medical waste management while also reducing the environmental impact of treatment centers, disposal centers, and transportation. It also aims to maximize the suitability of treatment technology based on social considerations and reduce the risk associated with processing and transporting COVID-19 waste. Different strategic and operational decisions are taken into account that include the selection of treatment technologies, the location of treatment and disposal centers, the flow of generated medical waste between facilities, and the number of vehicles required for the medical waste transport. The model tackles the uncertainty associated with model parameters, and it uses a credibility-based possibilistic programming method to deal with uncertainties. The suggested model is solved using an interactive fuzzy programming method and the importance of social indicators for selecting treatment technology is determined using the fuzzy best-worst approach. The effectiveness of the model is demonstrated by a practical case study in Shiraz, Iran. The numerical results can help system designers to achieve the most suitable trade-off between the sustainability goals and the safety viewpoint.
ABSTRACT
The medical waste generated during the epidemic is highly infectious. If it is not handled promptly and properly, it will have a bad effect. Under the constraints of limited time and funds, how to effectively and timely deal with the hazardous medical waste generated by epidemic patients is an issue of public concern. Reasonable network design of hazardous medical waste management system under emergency conditions is the key to solving this problem. However, so far, there are few related studies. This article considers factors such as multiple time periods, multiple types of medical waste, treatment technologies, and recycling. This research aims to explore issues such as the location of medical waste treatment facilities and whether they are operating in each time period, the distribution and transportation of various medical wastes, the selection of medical waste treatment technologies, and the processing capabilities of network nodes. With the goal of minimizing total economic cost and total risk, a multiobjective mixed integer programming model is constructed to obtain the optimal hazardous medical waste management system network. Take the management of hazardous medical waste during the COVID-19 in Wuhan as an example. The linear weighted summation method, augmented ε constraint method and augmented weighted Tchebycheff method are used to obtain high-quality non-dominated solutions. The numerical performance is compared and the validity and feasibility of the model are verified. The experimental results show that the augmented ε constraint method can obtain non-dominated solutions with more uniform distribution. A reasonable network design of the hazardous medical waste management system can well balance the total economic cost and the total risk. Decision makers can effectively control the total economic cost and total risk in the process of medical waste management by adjusting parameters such as weighting factors and adjusting the processing capacity and recovery rate of network nodes such as processing centers and recycling centers. The first part considers the network design of hazardous medical waste management system under emergency conditions, including the location of facilities, the transportation of hazardous medical waste, the selection of treatment technology and recycling. The network nodes involved mainly include: hospitals, temporary and existing hazardous medical waste treatment centers, recycling centers, and garbage disposal centers. The main problems to be solved in this paper are: The transportation and treatment of various types of hazardous medical waste generated by hospitals in a short period of time with a significant increase in quantity;In order to deal with a large amount of hazardous medical waste in time, the location of temporary treatment center, recycling center and garbage disposal center involved;Opening and operating the temporary processing center and recycling center in each time period;When the temporary processing center and recycling center are opened, the technical issues that need to be handled;The processing capacity of network nodes and the impact of factors such as recycling on the management of hazardous medical waste and other issues. Two goals were considered: One is to minimize the total cost, including the fixed open cost of each network node, operating cost, hazardous medical waste treatment cost and transportation cost, etc.;The second is to minimize the total risks, including the risks arising from the handling and transportation of hazardous medical waste. The two goals are in conflict with each other. This article uses a multiobjective optimization method to balance the two goals, and finally builds a multi-objective mixed integer programming model. In the second part, it is difficult to clearly distinguish the relative importance of multiple goals when considering the decisionmaker′ s decision-making. Therefore, a representative set of non-dominant solutions needs to be required for decision-makers to make decisions based on personal preference and actual management issues. It is different from the weighted summation method used in most literature. In this paper, both the augmented weighted Tchebycheff method and the augmented ε constraint method are used to solve the multi-objective mixed integer programming model constructed in this paper, and finally the Pareto optimal solution is given. In the third part, the management of hazardous medical waste generated during the period of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China was taken as an example to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the model in practice, and compared the numerical performance of three multi-objective optimization methods. According to the model in this paper, it is found through comparison that the augmented ε constraint method is better than the other two methods in terms of calculation time and uniformity of solution distribution. The results of numerical examples show that decision-makers can effectively control the total economic cost and total risk of the hazardous medical waste management system by adjusting the weighting factors, network node processing capacity ratios and recovery rates. When dealing with the problem of hazardous medical waste generated by a highly contagious epidemic (such as COVID-19), risk factors can be considered first, followed by cost. Adjust the weight of the objective function according to the specific problem, and then solve the problem of hazardous medical waste management more rationally and efficiently. Finally, it is hoped that the model in this article can solve the actual hazardous medical waste management problems, and the uncertain issues involved in the hazardous medical waste treatment process will be further studied in the future. © 2022, Journal of Industrial Engineering/ Engineering Management. All Rights Reserved.
ABSTRACT
To prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2019 has seen unprecedented demand for medical equipment and supplies. However, the problem of waste treatment has not yet been given due attention, i.e., the traditional waste treatment process is done independently, and it is not easy to share the necessary information. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the interaction between parties is minimized to limit infections. To evaluate the current system at medical centers, we also refer to the traditional waste treatment processes of four hospitals in Can Tho and Ho Chi Minh cities (Vietnam). Almost all hospitals are handled independently, lacking any interaction between the stakeholders. In this article, we propose a decentralized blockchain-based system for automating waste treatment processes for medical equipment and supplies after usage among the relevant parties, named Medical-Waste Chain. It consists of four components: medical equipment and supplies, waste centers, recycling plants, and sorting factories. Medical-Waste Chain integrates blockchain-based Hyperledger Fabric technology with decentralized storage of medical equipment and supply information, and securely shares related data with stakeholders. We present the system design, along with the interactions among the stakeholders, to ensure the minimization of medical waste generation. We evaluate the performance of the proposed solution using system-wide timing and latency analysis based on the Hyperledger Caliper engine. Our system is developed based on the hybrid-blockchain system, so it is fully scalable for both on-chain and off-chain-based extensions. Moreover, the participants do not need to pay any fees to use and upgrade the system. To encourage future use of Medical-Waste Chain, we also share a proof-of-concept on our Github repository.
ABSTRACT
Face masks play a crucial protective role in preventing the spread of coronavirus disease during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the improper disposal of used face masks also causes an emerging environmental problem, such as microplastic contamination. Here, the aim was to evaluate the improper disposal of used face masks and, subsequently, the potential contribution to microplastic contamination in urban rivers. First, we investigated the occurrence of discarded face masks in Qing River through continuously one-month collection on-site, and the disposable masks with a density of (8.28 ± 4.21) × 10-5 items/m2 with varying degrees of wear and tear were found. Next, the microfibers shedding from two popular types of new disposable masks were tested. The results showed that 50.33 ± 18.50 items/mask of microfibers, ranging from 301 µm to 467 µm in size, were released from the disposal face mask after immersion in ultrapure water for 24-h. It was significantly higher than the KN95 respirator of 31.33 ± 0.57 items/mask, ranging from 273 µm to 441 µm. Besides C and O elements only found in new face masks, some potentially toxic elements were also detected on the surface of discarded face masks, indicating that various environmental contaminations are easy to adsorb on the surface of discarded face masks. The results implied that these discarded face masks in an aquatic environment are emerging sources of microfibers and could act as transport vectors for contaminants, which would aggravate the present microplastic contamination. In conclusion, these findings were expected to raise public awareness of the proper disposal of used face masks to prevent microplastic contamination and the spread of COVID-19 in the environment.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , COVID-19/prevention & control , Humans , Masks , Microplastics , Pandemics/prevention & control , Plastics , Rivers , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
The global increase in plastic consumption has intensified during the Covid-19 pandemic. This review aims to highlight the potential impact of inadequate capacity for medical waste management during the pandemic phase, assess existing capacity in South Africa, and discuss the way forward. Key findings are;mismanaged medical waste can result in the secondary transmission of diseases and medical waste capacity can undoubtedly be compromised by outbreaks of diseases. South Africa is at a vantage point where it can learn from other countries such as China whose pre-Covid-19 capacities were overwhelmed by the surge in medical waste. With around 34.1% of households lacking waste collection services, the current medical waste management systems may not be fully adequate to handle the expected increase in waste as Covid-19 infections rise. To prevent challenges associated with poor waste management practices;as resources are channeled towards containing the Covid-19 pandemic, equal effort should also be directed towards increasing the country's medical waste management capacity including transportation services and labour. A full audit of the systems across the country is required. Existing infrastructure that can be utilized, including cement kilns and furnaces, should be identified, while mobile incinerators will also be advantageous. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
The whole world was shaken with the pandemic of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in end of the year 2019. Due to its novel origin, it was required to follow all precautions possible. Dealing with the massive amount of infectious healthcare waste became an enormous challenge. This review identifies the impacts of the pandemic on biomedical waste management. This systematic review was made by using keywords "biomedical waste" and "COVID 19" in open access databases like PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Google Scholers etc. 2124 articles downloaded and 765 found duplicate and 634 not related to the topic. after scrutiny with inclusion criteria 102 articles were considered to analyze the practices related to biomedical waste management during pandemic using PRISMA guideline.. The COVID-19 waste segregation, collection, storage, transportation, and disposal are a big challenge with all stakeholders. In order to control the virus spread, strict monitoring of the complete waste management cycle is required. Adoption of appropriate guidelines is paramount to worker safety and containment of infection. Sustainable recycling methods are needed to deal with the ever-increasing plastic waste resulting from mandatory personal protective equipment (PPE) usage. The situation also demands a rethinking of the healthcare system. Overall, there was an increase in BMW generation, and municipal waste had increased globally. Pandemic preparedness requires a global public health strategy and long-term investments. This will be vital for making a robust community capable enough to fight against any public health pressures in the future, as well as the pandemic tremors. Systematized efforts from all stakeholders, at all levels, not only refines epidemic preparation but also helps to attain a sustainable development of health for a healthier future.
ABSTRACT
Because of the growing number of hospitals in the country like the United Arab Emirates, huge medical wastes are generated in the hospitals, and managing this medical waste is considered a big challenge. In recent days, COVID 19 pandemic has paved the way for the generation of relatively huge amounts of infectious and hazardous waste in healthcare hospitals, and proper disposal of this heterogeneous mixture of medical waste is the biggest challenge. Improper waste management developed in health care units causes a direct impact on the workers, waste handlers, patients, caregivers, and the community. Also, it is important to manage the medical waste properly so that the environment will not get affected. In order to overcome this problem, both the manufacturer and the medical practitioner should take utmost care in managing the medical waste properly in all stages, starting from collection to the final disposal. The main aim of this research is to understand the different types of medical waste in the hospital and identify the barriers that impede the effective management of medical waste. For analyzing the interactions among the barriers, Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) approach is proposed as a solution methodology in this research work. By analysing the interaction among the barriers using the ISM model, we may extract the most influencing barrier that challenges both hospital management and government in managing medical waste safely and effectively. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused the alteration of many aspects of the solid waste management chain, such as variations in the waste composition, generation and disposal. Various studies have examined these changes with analysis of integrated waste management strategies; qualitative studies on perceived variations and statistical evaluations based on waste collected or disposed in landfills. Despite this information there is a need for updated data on waste generation and composition, especially in developing countries. The objective of this article is to develop a data sampling and analytical approach for the collection of data on household waste generation and composition during the pandemic; and, in addition, estimate the daily generation of masks in the study area. The proposed methodology is based on the principles of citizen science and utilizes virtual tools to contact participants, and for the training and collection of information. The study participants collected the information, installed segregation bins in their homes and trained their relatives in waste segregation. The article presents the results of the application of the methodology in an urban district of Lima (Peru) in August 2020. The results suggest an apparent decrease in household waste per capita and a slight increase in plastics composition in the study area. It is estimated that each participant generates 0.124 masks per day and 0.085 pairs of gloves per day. The method developed and results presented can be used as a tool for public awareness and training on household waste characterization and segregation. Furthermore it can provide the necessary evidence to inform policy directives in response household waste issues and Covid-19 restrictions.