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Hospital-Generated Waste-- How They Manage This

800px-Medical waste sorting in hospital

Every hospital needs a reliable and systematic approach to handling hospital wastes. Waste management is crucial because it can help improve the safety of hospital employees and patients. If medical wastes are correctly handled, the potential risks of spreading a virus are reduced. 

Hospital wastes have significantly increased throughout the years, and challenges that come with proper hospital waste management also arise. Here are some essential things that you need to know about how hospitals manage their wastes to protect their employees and their patients. 

Segregation

Hospitals strictly implement proper waste segregation to dispose of their waste correctly. The most common categories are general wastes, infectious, hazardous, and radioactive. In most hospitals, the garbage bins are color-coded for easy identification of the waste inside. 

Storage

Assuming that these medical wastes are correctly segregated, they are then put in temporary storage until they are collected. Most of the time, these storages are in a separate building from where the patients are treated. As a rule, the temporary storage should always be enclosed and sealed. 

Recycling

Some may find it odd that hospitals are recycling wastes. They, however, do not recycle needles, syringes, or any medical instrument used to treat a patient. Hospitals recycle papers used by people in the office or plastics that are safe to recycle. Hospitals are even looking at efficient ways to reduce the use of papers through automation. 

Conclusion

After the medical wastes are collected, they are carefully transported and treated to a designated area where they are sorted again for proper disposal. That is basically how healthcare facilities manage their medical wastes.