Healthcare waste | Pacific Environment

healthcare waste

Healthcare waste - also called hospital, clinical or medical waste - is the range of waste generated by hospitals and health clinics. While it is similar to domestic waste, it also contains a proportion of hazardous waste, which requires specific treatment.

Healthcare waste is hazardous because it has the potential to be infectious to humans, or cause injury and may contaminate the environment, therefore proper treatment and disposal is important to protect people and our natural surroundings.

Healthcare waste includes:

infectious waste such as biological and pathological waste, e.g. body parts, blood, human tissue, swabs or laboratory cultures
chemical waste such labroatory reagents, solvents and solutions
radiological waste such as isotopes used in nuclear medicine for treating cancer
sharps such as syringes/needles, infusion sets, scalpels, blades
pharmaceutical products that are expired, unused or unwanted

Poor management can result in the following injuries, health and environmental impacts:

radiation burns
sharps-inflicted injuries
poisoning and pollution through the release of pharmaceutical products (antibiotics and cytotoxic drugs)
poisoning and pollution through waste water
poisoning and pollution by toxic elements or compounds (e.g. mercury or dioxins that are released during incineration)

Healthcare waste in the Pacific

The quantity of healthcare waste in the Pacific region is increasing as population grows and medical services expand. In order to protect Pacific communities from exposure to healthcare wastes we need to protect all individuals who could be exposed to the risks of improperly managed healthcare waste. This includes healthcare workers at hospitals and health clinics, hospital workers responsible for the handling, transport and disposal of healthcare waste, and members of the community living near hospitals and health clinics.

In developing countries, additional hazards occur from scavenging at waste disposal sites and the manual sorting of hazardous waste from hospitals and health clinics. These practices are common in the Pacific.

Kirakira SI Handling waste barefoot 2014
How will PacWaste address healthcare waste?

The PacWaste project will gather baseline information from 14 participating countries across the Pacific region and Timor Leste about the current state of healthcare waste management at hospitals and healthcare clinics. This will enable prioritisation of future actions to assist Pacific islands in improving healthcare waste management and better protect their communities.These achievements will be shared through regional collaboration during the final phase of the project.

Participating countries and hospitals

The following hospitals were part of the healthcare waste baseline survey carried out between March and May 2014.

Cook Islands