Elsevier

Waste Management

Volume 22, Issue 5, August 2002, Pages 461-470
Waste Management

Analyses of the recycling potential of medical plastic wastes

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0956-053X(02)00006-5Get rights and content

Abstract

This study analyzed the recycling potential of plastic wastes generated by health care facilities. For this study, we obtained waste streams and recycling data from five typical city hospitals and medical centers and three animal hospitals in Massachusetts. We analyzed the sources, disposal costs and plastic content of medical wastes, and also determined the components, sources, types and amounts of medical plastic wastes. We then evaluated the recycling potential of plastic wastes produced by general city hospital departments, such as cafeterias, operating rooms, laboratories, emergency rooms, ambulance service and facilities, and animal hospitals. Facilities, laboratories, operating rooms, and cafeterias were identified as major sources of plastic wastes generated by hospitals. It was determined that the recycling potential of plastics generated in hospital cafeterias was much greater than that in other departments. This was mainly due to a very slight chance of contamination or infection and simplification of purchasing plastic components. Finally, we discuss methods to increase the recycling of medical plastic wastes. This study suggests that a classification at waste generating sources, depending upon infection chance and/or plastic component, could be a method for the improved recycling of plastic wastes in hospitals.

Introduction

Medical wastes historically have been disposed of in landfills or treated in incinerators located in the health care facilities or off-site (Hutchens and Strutz, 1998). In 1996 the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) estimated that there were approximately 2300 medical incinerators in operation (U.S. EPA, 1996, Hutchens and Strutz, 1998). Medical wastes have been improperly treated in poorly designed and/or inadequately controlled incinerators (Hyland, 1993). Thus, a significant quantity of hazardous pollutants, such as dioxins and furans, HCl, and heavy metals including Cd, Hg, and Pb, have been produced from the incineration of medical wastes (Lerner, 1997). This has led to increased public concerns over the disposal of medical wastes.

There is no single definition of “medical waste”. The terms medical wastes, hospital wastes, and infectious wastes have often been used interchangeably. In this paper, dealing with all types of wastes produced by health care facilities such as general hospitals, medical centers, medical laboratories or animal hospitals, we use the term “medical wastes” rather than the term “hospital wastes”. Infectious wastes have been described as “biohazardous,” “health-services hazardous,” “pathological,” “biological,” “hazardous infectious” (Meaney and Cheremisihoff, 1989). In this paper, the term “infectious wastes” refers to that proportion of health care wastes that have the potential to transmit disease, and thus must be properly treated prior to disposal (Hall, 1989, Meaney and Cheremisihoff, 1989). Most of infected medical wastes consists of regulated medical wastes (RMW), which are defined by the federal Medical Waste Tracking Act (MWTA) of 1989 as “any solid waste which is generated in the diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of human beings or animals, in research pertaining thereto, or in proportion of biologicals” (Hyland, 1993). In the United States infected medical wastes are disposed of primarily through incineration. In 1996, 55.4% of the total municipal solid waste (MSW) including non-infected (non-regulated) medical wastes (NRMW) was disposed of by landfilling (US EPA, 1998). However, the number of operating landfills has decreased during the last two decades, and the construction of new landfills is very difficult due to the high construction cost and limited space (Ehrig and Curry, 1993, U.S. EPA, 1998). In 1996, the generation of plastics in MSW was 19.8 million tons, which is 9.4% of MSW by weight (see Table 1). Plastics occupied 12.3% (by weight) of the total MSWs landfilled, while the volume proportion of plastics occupied about 25.1% of MSWs landfilled US EPA, 1998. Also, the recovery rate of MSW by weight was about 27.3%, while the recovery rate of plastics was only 5.4% in the US in 1996 (US EPA, 1998). That is, the recovery of plastics is much lower than that of other MSW and most plastics are landfilled. Therefore, currently, plastic is one of the most important components of the waste stream to occupy landfill space.

The plastic content (20–25% by weight) of medical waste is significantly higher than that of MSW (Marrack and Meyers, 1994, Lee and Ellenbecker, 1995). Therefore, to save landfill space, to preserve natural resources, and to reduce expensive disposal cost of medical wastes, recycling of plastics should be increased.

In this study, we identified the sources, types, and amounts of plastic wastes from three animal hospitals, and from six to eight city hospital departments, i.e. cafeteria, operating room, laboratory, emergency room, ambulance service, environmental service or housekeeping and purchasing or facilities. We then evaluated the recyclability of MPW based on the results obtained in this study and a survey of the literature regarding the recycling of medical plastic wastes. Finally, we discuss methods to increase recycling of MPW, along with alternative option to reduce hospital waste.

Section snippets

Data collection

In order to identify MPW a review of the typical records of plastics purchased by hospitals was conducted and data from survey letters and telephone conversations with hospital authorities were obtained. Interviews with hospital managers, medical suppliers, and medical plastic recycling companies were also performed. Site visits to five typical city hospitals [hospitals A (private), B (private), C (public medical school and hospital), D (private medical school and hospital) and E (general)]

Analysis of the components of plastic wastes

The data in Table 2 show the relative proportion of the components of MPW produced by hospitals A and B. Major components of plastic wastes are cafeteria plastics, sharps [segregated syringe-needle stream (Marrack and Meyers, 1994)], medical packaging, and blood bags and tubing; these items constitute about 67% of all plastic wastes. The information in this table can be used to help prioritize the plastic products to be eliminated or replaced from medical plastic waste streams. For example,

Recycling programs of medical plastic wastes

The main hindrance to the development of recycling programs for MPW is the potential risk of transmitting infections. Another obstacle to recycling is the improper or overly broad classification of medical wastes. However, since medical disposal cost has increased continuously and landfill space availability has decreased rapidly, many efforts to minimize waste generation by waste recycling and reuse have been performed.

Many hospitals currently are operating programs to recycle non-contaminated

Conclusions

Through a study of the analysis of recycling potential of medical plastic wastes generated from five typical city hospitals and three typical animal hospitals in Massachusetts, we reached the following conclusions:

  • The major components of total plastic wastes were cafeteria plastics, sharps, medical packaging, blood bags, tubing and IV bags. The major sources of plastic wastes generated by the hospitals were facilities, laboratories, operating rooms, and cafeterias.

  • Hospital cafeterias were the

Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts through the Center for Environmentally Appropriate Materials (CEAM), University of Massachusetts, USA. The authors wish to acknowledge the excellent assistance provided by C.A. Pace, Dr. M.D. Pearlmutter, Dr. S.S. Yoon, Dr. M.S. Kim, Dr. L. Richard, C. Riley, P. DeFilippi, L. Pontae, P. Mackinnon, D. Baker, Dr. J.P. Remensyder, P. Barthlomew, M. Mondor, P. Target, J. Whall, and Dr. H. Jin who generously helped us find information of

References (22)

  • Anderson, J., Curmen, R., Miripori, J., 1999. Alternatives to current blood bag plastic and plasticizer materials. US...
  • Asheville Hospital, N.C., 1992. Hospital sets recycling plan for plastics. American Metal Market, April,...
  • Bartholomew, P., Cycyota, M., Petrilli, L., Rosauer, D., Scharf, M., Giovanetto, S., 1994. Recycling post-consumer...
  • Baxter Healthcare Corp. and Stericycle Inc., 1994. Effort targets medical waste. American Metal Market, January,...
  • Buell, P., Girard, J., 1994. Synthetic polymers. In: Buell, P., Girard, J. (Eds.), Chemistry: An Environmental...
  • Ehrig, R.J., Curry, M.J., 1993. Introduction and history of plastics recycling, In: Ehrig, R.J. (Ed.), Plastics...
  • Hall, S.K., 1989. Infectious waste managements: a multi-faceted problem. Pollution Engineering Augusts,...
  • Hasselriis, F., Constantine, L., 1992. In: Green, A.E.S. (Ed.), Medical Waste Incineration and Pollution Prevention....
  • Hornseth, T., 1994. The internet to track recycling options. Modern Healthcare September,...
  • Hutchens, S.L., Strutz, L.L., 1998. The effect of the hospital medical/infectious waste incinerator rule on the US...
  • Hyland, R.G., 1993. Regulatory developments affecting medical waste disposal. 86th Annual Meeting and Exhibition, Air &...
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text