ABSTRACT
According to market research, the pharmaceutical packaging sector is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 7.4% between 2022 and 2031, reaching an estimated USS178.8 billion (€171.8 billion) by the end of the forecast period (1). "Pharmaceutical waste continues to be a huge problem, so to eliminate non-biodegradable and single-use plastics from the supply chain, more research is taking place around bio-based PET [polyethylene terephthalate]. "By designing a product's primary and secondary packaging well from the outset (including investing ample resources into the process), manufacturers can reduce the amount of materials used and wasted, test new eco materials, ensure safety compliance and efficacy, and benefit from cheaper transportation costs," Quelch surmises. [...]pharma companies can benefit from a packaging supplier with a true global footprint," he says.
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
The debate on folic acid fortification of food to prevent neural tube defects in babies, for example, hasn't progressed in more than two decades (doi:10.1136/bmj.p1158).8 The worrying rise in perinatal suicides requires better funded services and support for women and young families to prevent deaths (doi:10.1136/bmj-2023-075414).9 And are the mandatory school inspections that harm the mental health of teaching staff even necessary (doi:10.1136/bmj.p1147)?10 The same applies to overzealous and discriminatory processes implemented by medical regulatory bodies such as the General Medical Council, despite claims of improvement by its chief executive (doi:10.1136/bmj.p1295 doi:10.1136/bmj.p1252).1112 The prevention principle would urge us to support a ban on vaping (doi:10.1136/bmj.p1266) and consider new options for reducing the number of days people experience migraines (doi:10.1136/bmj.p1249).1314 It would also induce bewilderment at the decision to wind down the UK's world leading covid surveillance network when covid-19 is still with us and future pandemics are inevitable (doi:10.1136/bmj.p1157).15 It would not, however, lend support to a non-evidence based screening programme for haemochromatosis (doi:10.1136/bmj.p1264).16 The first steps of an "avoid, reduce, reuse, recycle, research, rethink” framework (doi:10.1136/bmj-2021-069044) focus on better clinical practice that avoids low value care and inappropriate admissions and minimises blood tests and other interventions.17 This latest article in our series on achieving net zero and environmental sustainability in clinical practice examines critical care. The challenge isn't entirely a clinical one, because achieving net zero will depend on commitment across healthcare professions, engineering, waste management, hospital leadership, and beyond. A research paper assessing the value of routine monitoring of people being treated with methotrexate finds that frequency of monitoring should be adjusted according to risk, reducing the burden of work on clinical staff and making life more manageable for patients (doi:10.1136/bmj-2022-074678 doi:10.1136/bmj.p1120).1819 The difficulty here is one of getting research into practice, a timescale of 17 years by some estimates.
ABSTRACT
Medical wastes are generated in healthcare facilities and hospitals, and they include discarded materials that are contaminated with blood or infectious materials, used syringes, gloves, etc. Medical wastes are hazardous;hence, they require a special attention. The objective of this chapter is to introduce medical waste constituents, medical waste regulations, and conventional and advanced methods of medical waste management and control. This chapter discusses waste management techniques such as segregation, labeling, separation, and waste minimization methods, in addition to medical waste treatment methods including landfilling, autoclaving, chemical disinfection, microwave disinfection, plasma gasification, and pyrolysis. Furthermore, medical waste management and control during COVID-19 pandemic is examined through recent case studies. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
ABSTRACT
A February 2022 World Health Organization news release estimates that through just one of its global response initiatives some "87,000 tonnes of personal protective equipment . . . was procured between March 2020 [and] November 2021," most of which "ended up as waste. On one level, I take some measure of reassurance when I see a mask of any kind littering the street because it means someone took seriously the public health benefits of wearing it. "Tonnes of COVID-19 Health Care Waste Expose Urgent Need to Improve Waste Management Systems."
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused huge health and economic damages. Various protective face masks, such as single-use, cotton, and the most widespread FFP2 or KN95 masks, are used to prevent the spread of this virus. However, these face masks are usually packaged in plastic packaging, which increases the amount of plastic waste. Plastic gloves are also often used in the connection of the pandemic. All this leads to a large production of protective equipment, but their use contributes to the increase of this type of waste, which presents a new challenge in waste management. This article investigates a complete element analysis of these mentioned materials and observes potential harmful substances. Further, pellets, as a potential fuel for combustion or pyrolysis purposes, were produced with the content of 5% and 10% of face masks. FFP2 were firstly separated from ear straps and wires, then disintegrated, added to spruce sawdust, and compressed into pellets. A series of experiments were realized and aimed at elemental, thermogravimetric, and calorific value analyses of produced pellets. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the presence of face masks FFP2 in pellets increases the content of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, volatile matter, and calorific values, but decreases the content of fixed carbon. According to elemental analysis of produced pellets, no significant amounts of harmful elements were found. © 2023 The Author(s)
ABSTRACT
Pyrolysis of medical waste components combined via a novel systematic combination approach (sequentially binary, ternary, and quaternary copyrolysis) was conducted at 400°C to investigate the synergy between medical waste components in improving chemical characteristics and yields of pyrolytic oil. Pyrolysis of hydrocarbon-polymer-containing materials such as medical gloves and rubber bands produced more than 30% of liquid products with substantial compositions of saturated aliphatic hydrocarbon polymers. On the other hand, moisture- and carbonyl-rich pyrolytic liquid products with low selectivity were obtained from pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass waste such as HVS paper (houtvrij schrijfpapier, meaning "writing paper made from wood pulp”) and garden waste. Binary copyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass and medical gloves exhibited improvement on pyrolytic liquid yield and selectivity toward saturated aliphatic hydrocarbon polymers due to hydrogen donor as the medical glove fraction became dominant. The addition of rubber band to the mixture of HVS paper and medical face masks enhanced the pyrolytic liquid yield. The pyrolysis of the mixture of HVS paper, medical face masks, medical gloves, and either rubber bands or cotton fabrics with mixture ratio of 60:20:10:10 yielded the most optimum pyrolytic liquid yield with significant distribution of alkanes in the pyrolytic liquid products. © 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
ABSTRACT
Uncollected filled bins during the COVID pandemic in hospitals and at home are a common issue these days. This becomes a source of community spread of COVID-19. Here the key issue is unsanitary waste management, which can be controlled by an efficient IoT-based smart bin system to present garbage level collected in bins in 'COVID' wards through the use of ultrasonic sensor which stops rubbish from overflowing from smart bins and a gas sensor to determine if any dangerous gases are emitted. The virus and pathogens are neutralized with the help of ultraviolet rays. A rechargeable battery that runs on a solar Piezo hybrid power charges the system. As a result, the bin tends to minimize the potential of infectious illness transmitted to healthcare professionals. Smart bins will prevent overflowing waste from the bins and also stop unsanitary conditions from prevailing nearby. It is a straightforward yet incredibly valuable concept. © 2023 IEEE.
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Wastes generated in the face of COVID-19 pose enormous risks to the environment and heath. Environmental pollution from deficiencies in disposal patterns of hospital wastes may result in widespread recycling of SARS-CoV-2 infection. This paper aimed at creating awareness of the impact of inaptly disposed medical wastes on the environment;produced from managing COVID-19 leading to SARS-CoV-2 widespread recycling. Assemblage of recent and suitable literatures relating to keywords like waste disposal, medical wastes, coronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 and environmental pollution were revised/reviewed. Data suggest that factors like reduced awareness, negligence, ignorance, lack of polices among others are the chief influences contributing to improper medical wastes collection, disposal and management leading to environmental hazards. Therefore, improper disposal of medical wastes can lead to toxic environmental pollution thereby recycling SARS-CoV-2 in the face of COVID-19 management. Hence, incineration after prior disinfection remains the best management option in the prevailing coronavirus era. Copyright © 2022 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
ABSTRACT
If it is not adequately managed, the waste from healthcare facilities containing infectious material poses a risk to the general public and the natural environment. As a result, hospitals must ensure that their waste management policies do not add to the dangers posed to both human health and the environment. In this study, we aimed to determine the effect that varying doses of disinfectant in conjunction with andosol soil had on the total number of bacteria present in the medical waste generated by three hospitals in Semarang City, Indonesia. According to the findings of the study, the most efficient method for decreasing the overall number of microbial colonies by 93% was a combination involving soil (at a percentage of 30) and chlorine (at a concentration of 0.75 ppm). As a consequence of this, and due to the limited technology available, this straightforward method can become an alternative for the healthcare industry in managing medical waste before dumping or incinerating it. Hospitals have been advised to discontinue the practice of directly burning, disinfecting, or transporting waste to disposal locations before it receives treatment. This can help reduce the risk of pandemics, as the correct disposal of medical waste can control infection sources.
ABSTRACT
During the lockdown period due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the heaps of unusual wastes of packaging from panic buying, medical wastes from Covid-19 centres and isolation places, as well as discarded single-use safety gears like personal protective equipments are posing challenges not only for health hazards but also escalating the probability of the spread of diverse variants of Novel Corona Virus SARS-COV-2. Unfortunately, the containment of the spreading of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown measures are impacting waste management adversely like anything in almost all corners of the world, especially, in developing nations where there exists lesser awareness with regard to this deadly disease and orderly disposal of these pandemic wastes. Also, the waste hierarchy of the "4R concept”, i.e., Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and recovery is negatively influencing during the prevailing epidemic circumstances which hinder the methodical waste disposal useful to save the environments and human health. The scenario of haphazard dumping of this waste is found worst in developing nations which are not fully prepared to face such thorny and all of a sudden difficulty of disposal of piles of these new risky wastes with their limited facilities and staff. However, the developing nations have instituted policies to ensure sustainable management of waste but it proved inadequate against the giant pandemic situations. Surprisingly, both - optimistic and pessimistic, types of impacts are being monitored on environments during the Covid-19 lockdown. Particularly, in the context of developing nations, the present review manuscript assesses both the optimistic and pessimistic impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic on the waste management sector and environment comprehensively along with the ways to address this gigantic Covid-19 waste crisis systematically. © 2023 MIM Research Group. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Elevated medical waste has urged the improvement of sustainable medical waste treatments. A bibliometric analysis is initially conducted to investigate scientific development of medical waste management to pinpoint the publication trends, influential articles, journals and countries and study hotspots. Publications on medical waste and its management sharply increased since 2020. The most influential article was written by Klemeš et al., and "Waste Management and Research” is the most productive journal. India, China, the United Kingdom, Iran and Italy have published the most works. The research spotlights have switched from "human” and "sustainable development” in 2019 to "COVID-19” and "circular economy” in 2021. Since government acts essentially in handling medical waste and controlling disease transmission, rule implementations among the abovementioned countries are summarized to seek gaps between scientific advancement and regulatory frameworks. For accomplishing a circular economy, waste-to-energy technologies (incineration, gasification, pyrolysis, plasma-based treatments, carbonization, hydrogenation, liquefaction, biomethanation, fermentation and esterification) are comprehensively reviewed. Incineration, gasification, pyrolysis and carbonization are relatively feasible methods, their characteristics and limitations are further compared. By holistically reviewing current status of medical waste research, the focal points involved in management at the policy and technical level have been highlighted to find proper routes for medical waste valorization. © 2023 by the authors.
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Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) is widely used to understand the complex connections between different components. This study presents a bibliometric overview of ISM research, with a focus on its linkages to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the impact of COVID-19. The study analyzed 1988 publications on ISM published between 2012 and 2021, of which 1202 were directly mapped to the SDGs and 59 were related to COVID-19. The study identified key authors, institutions, countries, and journals involved in the research and their linkages to the SDGs. The results showed that ISM research is strongly linked to SDG 12 (on responsible consumption and production) and SDG 9 (on industry, innovation, and infrastructure). We also identified influential SDGs on the basis of centrality measures such as betweenness and eigenvector. The top four countries contributing to ISM publications were India, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The most frequently cited journals were Benchmarking: An International Journal, Sustainability, the Journal of Modelling in Management, and the Journal of Cleaner Production. Four main clusters were identified in the ISM research, including (1) integration with AHP and fuzzy logic for promoting sustainability alignment, (2) ISM-based strategy development for various stakeholders, (3) ISM-based decision-making in various fields, and (4) ISM-based risk evaluation. For the first time, studies that used the ISM approach to understand the epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 were identified, and their key findings were discussed. The study also identified several emerging topics for future ISM research, such as blockchain and IoT, environmental management systems, climate change adaptation, smart cities, and humanitarian logistics and their potential linkages to the SDGs.
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IntroductionCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) saw an overhaul in the biomedical waste management (BMWM) practices) Waste handlers were at the brunt of these changes. If the challenges pertaining to BMWM at the ground level are better understood, more effective measures to overcome them can be formulated.MethodologyThis qualitative research using in-depth interviews was done on 17 participants during August to November 2021 in a tertiary care institute in Mumbai. Thematic analysis was conducted on the qualitative data obtained.ResultsThree major themes were generated from the transcripts. They are-challenges and concerns faced by BMW handlers, enablers/motivators, opportunities and future practices. Various challenges faced by waste handlers were- difficulties in segregation and transport of BMW, exhaustion from PPE usage and fear of acquiring and spreading COVID 19 from work, stigma faced from public, and handling COVID 19 deaths. Support from family and colleagues, incentives and a positive change in public perception enabled them to work.ConclusionsIt is of utmost importance to address challenges faced by waste handlers in BMWM. This will improve hygiene, workplace safety and reduce transmission of diseases. Onus should also be on periodic training in BMWM.
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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
A rise in the COVID-19 pandemic has led to increase in biomedical waste (BMW) all over the globe that leads to the perilous situation. Hence, this review has made an attempt to gather all the guidelines for appropriate BMW management in dental practice during COVID-19 pandemic. The keywords such as Biomedical waste management guidelines, COVID-19, dental waste management, and India were used in the literature search engines such as PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar along with the various guidelines provided by international, national agencies and verified government websites with a focus on the BMW management in dentistry during COVID-19. The result enumerated that Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 2016, categorizes the bio-medical waste generated from the health-care facility into four categories based on the segregation pathway and color code. These guidelines were reshaped in 2018, 2019, and in 2020 for COVID-19 pandemic. Collection and segregation of biomedical waste separately before handling it to the Common Bio-medical Waste Treatment and Disposal Facility was highly recommended that should be labeled with "COVID-19” both in medical and dental waste management guidelines. This review revealed that BMW management guidelines should be followed by all the health-care fraternities including oral health professionals as they are at a heightened risk of COVID-19, it is vital that they are informed of the most up-to-date protocols for BMW disposal in this pandemic.
ABSTRACT
Medical waste management is a challenging problem that not only directly affects the environment but also people's health. This urgent issue is getting more and more attention in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. New infections are increasing exponentially in all countries globally, especially developing countries with large populations (e.g., India, Brazil, Bangladesh). Studies on the spread of the disease have listed one of the causes of this crisis as the Covid-19 waste treatment process not being followed correctly and the difficulty of data retrieval. Vietnam was also severely damaged by the Covid-19 epidemic, although the government initially controlled the disease very well. The Covid-19 waste treatment process in Vietnam is still being processed manually and with a combination of many departments. Data sharing and tracking are also tricky because they are centrally stored in different facilities/departments. In addition, there is a lack of synchronization and transparency of shared data. This paper is one of the first attempts to fill that gaps by applying Blockchain technology and decentralized storage. Relevant parties will retrieve all data, and the source of waste can be easily traced. We also implemented a proof-of-concept based on the Hyperledger Fabric platform to demonstrate the idea's feasibility. In the evaluation, we observe the process of initializing and querying data. These initial efforts will lay the groundwork for more in-depth studies to create an initiative for Vietnam's medical waste treatment process when faced with a new wave of infections or another epidemic. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
ABSTRACT
Since the COVID-19 outbreak in late 2019, a surprisingly large amount of personal protective equipment, such as medical rubber gloves, have been frequently used, and this medical waste can cause very major environmental problems. A multidisciplinary collaborative approach is needed to combat the pandemic and lessen the environmental risks associated with the disposal of medical waste. This study developed an innovative approach by incorporating shredded rubber glove fibers (RGF) into aggregates to enhance the fatigue resistance of concrete. In this study, different volume contents (0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0%) of RGF were added to the aggregate for the first time. The effects of different RGF contents on the fatigue characteristics of concrete were examined through repeated loading tests and SEM analysis. The results show that the width and number of cracks produced by rubber glove fiber concrete (RGFC) after repeated loading are significantly reduced compared with normal concrete (NC). Following repeated loading, RGFC exhibited higher total, plastic, and elastic strain values than NC, demonstrating greater deformability and elasticity. However, the maximum total strain growth rate and the total strain growth range of the RGFC group were only 2.26 × 10−3/time and 14.0%, which were significantly smaller than the 3.8 × 10−3/time and 31.7% of the NC group, showing better stability, corresponding to enhance the fatigue resistance of concrete. The interfacial transition zone (ITZ) was abnormally smooth with a thin thickness and no visible gaps were discovered, based on the results of SEM test performed on the RGFC. The findings obtained in this study may provide new ideas for the resource utilization of medical waste. © 2023
ABSTRACT
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, large amounts of medical wastes have been produced and their disposal has resulted in environmental and human health problems. This medical waste may include face masks, gloves, face shields, goggles, coverall suits, and other related wastes, such as hand sanitizer and disinfectant containers. To address this issue, the effect was investigated of gasification process parameters (type of COVID-19 medical mask based on the polypropylene ratio, pressure, steam ratio, and temperature) on hydrogen syngas and cold gas efficiency. The gasification model was developed using process modeling based on the Aspen Plus software. Response surface methodology with a 3k statistical factorial design was used to optimize the process aiming for the highest hydrogen yield and cold gas efficiency. Analysis of variance showed that both the steam ratio and temperature were significant parameters regarding the hydrogen yield and cold gas efficiency. Proposed models were constructed with very high accuracy based on their coefficient of determination (R2) values being greater than 0.97. The optimum conditions were: 65 % polypropylene in the mixture, a pressure of 1 bar, a steam ratio of 0.38, and a temperature of 900 °C, producing a maximum hydrogen yield of 40.61 % and cold gas efficiency of 81.43 %. These results supported the efficacy of the primary design for steam gasification using a mixture of plastic wastes as feedstock. The hydrogen could be utilized in chemical applications, whereas the efficiency could be used as a basis for further development of the process. © 2022 THE AUTHORS
ABSTRACT
Solid waste management is one of the critical challenges seen everywhere, and the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has only worsened the problems in the safe disposal of infectious waste. This paper outlines a design for a mobile robot that will intelligently identify, grasp, and collect a group of medical waste items using a six-degree of freedom (DoF) arm, You Only Look Once (YOLO) neural network, and a grasping algorithm. Various designs are generated before running simulations on the selected virtual model using Robot Operating System (ROS) and Gazebo simulator. A lidar sensor is also used to map the robot's surroundings and navigate autonomously. The robot has good scope for waste collection in medical facilities, where it can help create a safer environment.