Biomedical Waste Management

In 1971, Waste Management went public with initial offering of 3,20,000 share. WMI 's founders used the proceeds of that stock sale to launch one of the most spectacular success stories in the history of U.S. business. From 1971 to 1980, WMI revenue grew at a rate of 48% per year. In 1979 earnings were almost 10% of sales. Most of this phenomenal growth was achieved by means of acquisition--WMI bought 75 companies in the 18 months following its stock offering. The Company through its core waste management services owns or operates 271 landfill sites, which is a network of landfills in its industry. The Company manages 287 transfer stations. It also uses waste to create energy. It uses the gas produced

As has been asserted in a lot of research, how to handle human waste could be a major issue. Human waste including food waste and body waste. The human body waste will be focused in this report. According to GENECO, there are 75 million m3 of human sewage have been creating every year in Bristol. The human body waste could contaminate water system and lead disease if they haven 't been treat appropriately. As Tearfund and WaterAid(2002) has pointed out, four out of ten people, 2.4 billion, are suffering from the disease caused by the issue of poor sanitation. Therefore, action on sanitation and re-think how to use the human body waste will make work more effective. In order to address the research question ‘is it possible that human body waste could be use as renewable energy ', the technology of composting human body waste will be investigated, data and case study will be analyzed in terms of energy consumption, water use and air pollution, finally, how to make human body waste as a useful substance and achieve sustainable lifestyle will be answer.

Hazardous wastes are poisonous byproducts of manufacturing, farming, city septic systems, construction, automotive shops, laboratories, hospitals, and other industries such as Military installations and military training areas. The waste may be liquid, solid, or sludge and contain chemicals, heavy metals, radiation, dangerous pathogens, or other toxins. Even households generate hazardous waste from items such as batteries, used computer equipment, and leftover paints or pesticides. The waste can harm humans, animals, and plants if they encounter these toxins buried in the ground, in stream runoff, in groundwater that supplies drinking

The sustainable management of Healthcare Waste (HCW) has continued to generate increasing public interest due to the health problems associated with human exposure to potentially hazardous wastes arising from healthcare (Tudor et al., 2005; Ferreira, 2003; Da Silver et al., 2005).Presently a considerable gap exists with regard to the assessment of healthcare waste management practices in several other countries in Sub–Saharan Africa. The nature and quantity of healthcare waste generated as well as institutional practices with regards to sustainable methods of healthcare waste management, including waste segregation and waste recycling are often poorly examined and poorly documented in several countries of the world despite the health risks posed by the improper handling of healthcare waste (Farzadika et al., 2009; Oke, 2005). It is also of serious concern that the level of awareness, particularly of health workers regarding healthcare waste has not been adequately documented.

Recycling is a method used to change waste materials into original resources to avoid waste of potentially beneficial resources. Utilization is a key factor of modern waste reduction and it is a substantial feature of the ‘Reduce’, ‘Reuse’, ‘Recycle’ waste hierarchy. Recycling is far more authoritative than most people are inclined to consider. The first rule of eulogy is that everything is connected.

Recycling programs are in place all around the world yet most trash still ends up in a landfill. When something is being decomposed, it’s being broken down slowly. When something is being decomposed by living bacteria or other living organisms then it is biodegradable. As an effect of this, eventually, the materials will be fully broken down. In landfills, most materials start to decompose (North and Halden 2013). Materials such as extruded polystyrene foam, plastic, and paper that are in landfills can cause pollution. Pollution is the act of introducing something that will bring harmful effects. Biodegradation helps to reduce the amount of trash in landfills so that landfills do not become full of capacity.

Each classification of wastes is subjected to be disposed in a distinctive way. The number of wastes can be minimized in the environment by adapting and utilizing it. Since Landfill disposal has limitations in terms of its effectivity in handling and managing wastes, different waste disposal methods are used. The common ways that people are applying in handling wastes are composting, recycling and reusing, because these can be easily done at home. Other methods such as anaerobic digestion, Incineration and plasma gasification include the process of using facilities in order to perform tasks involving waste management. These are applicable when disposing biological and chemical wastes from manures and industries

Households and other units wrap all garbage into plastic bags and dispose them. The non-biodegradable plastic bags acts like a covering on the garbage preventing it from being converted into compost.

The waste is something that is “no longer useful” or harmful to the society or a person (p. 393). It can take various forms: liquid, solid, gas or energy (heat or noise) (p. 394). Living beings produce wastes (p. 393). A lot of garbage is derived from human activity. The statistics show that waste production in the United Kingdom totaled approximately “335 million tonnes annually in the early 2000s” (p. 294). The main contributing sectors of this junk were: construction, demolition, mining, quarrying, industry, commerce, household, dredged materials, sewage sludge and agriculture (p. 394). Some wastes are hazardous if they are corrosive, flammable, explosive, toxic to living beings or possess high chemical reactivity (p. 394). Such materials can be: hospital wastes, alkali, acids, heavy metals, oils, solvents, pesticides and PCBs (p. 394-395). Unfortunately, the lack of annually updated information on waste, low priority of its collection and varying methods of its compilation across different countries makes the analyze of waste trends very problematic (p. 394).

Hazardous waste could be defined as “any industrial by-product, especially from the manufacture of chemicals that is destructive to the environment or dangerous to the health of people or animals.” (Dictionary.com, n.d) Similarly, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, “hazardous waste is waste that is dangerous or potentially harmful to our health or the environment. Hazardous wastes can be liquids, solids, gases, or sludges. They can be

Municipal solid waste (MSW) publicly known as trash or garbage is defined according to the Landfill directive (1999) as waste from households as well as other waste streams that are similar in composition. Generally, MSW can be characterized as waste coming from residential, institutional, commercial and industrial sources and they include; product packaging, kitchen waste, papers, plastics, garden waste etc. MSW does not include construction and demolition debris, automobile industries, waste water sludge, etc. (EPA, 2006). Table 2.1 comprises as sources of MSW and their examples.

Here are just a few examples of the waste we humans produce; solid, nuclear, and waste from pathogens. Oh you thought I was going to tell you about the stuff you throw into the trash can, not exactly. Let’s define waste, waste is “a sparsely settled or barren region, uncultivated land, a broad and empty expanse, the act or an instance of wasting, the state of being wasted, loss through breaking down of bodily tissue, gradual loss or decrease by use, wear, or decay, damaged, defective, or superfluous material produced by a manufacturing process: as material rejected during a textile manufacturing process and used usually for wiping away dirt and oil: scrap: an unwanted by-product of a manufacturing process, chemical laboratory, or nuclear reactor: refuse from places of human or animal habitation: garbage, rubbish: excrement, often used in plural sewage, material derived by mechanical and chemical weathering of the

Since the human being lived in this world, different kinds of waste were produced continuously. In the early years, the common wastes produced were biodegradable. There are no major problems with this since it will decompose over time. As the number of population increases and new inventions were made, the kind of waste produced by humans also increases. Some of these wastes include plastics, glass, metal, papers and many more. Some of waste scattered in the surroundings are recyclable. But due to improper waste management, these are not optimized.

Non-biodegradable solid waste (NBDSW) or refuse is a carpet word. It covers a variety of materials ranging from asbestos to Zinc batteries. Polythene and its related compounds are the most commonly found solid waste materials in urban environs. Many non-biodegradable solid waste materials are known to cause considerable environmental hazards when released into land, water and atmosphere.

When I first went to the university, I knew nothing about environmental science but as I became familiar with the program it became more and more exciting. The complexity of the course and discovering that everything in the world is related to the environment was very fascinating to me. I further did a master degree in sustainable development with specialties in environment and natural resources management. My thesis was on waste management especially medical waste management. That is where I became more interested to study environment and health, patients go into the hospital with less illness and come back with bigger health issues. scavengers mostly children are exposed to contaminated syringes and cloths and are of high risk of been infected by HIV and Hepatitis B. This is due to improper waste management in these hospitals. I thought to myself if only this aspect of medical waste can be this harmful to the health of the population what about other aspects of the Environment. How will they affect the health of the population? It became clear to me that I should study more about the environment and our health and how I can help to reduce untimely deaths in my community and country.