The creation and monitoring of a network for solid healthcare waste management

Abstract

Healthcare waste mismanagement constitutes a serious environmental and sanitary problem, especially in developing countries. This article describes the strategy and the methodology of the implementation of a national network for healthcare waste management by a non-profit organisation in Lebanon, taking into consideration environmental, social and economic issues. It presents a holistic description of the main aspects of this crucial sustainable development topic: the elaboration of the strategy and the selection of the optimal treatment technique based on an analysis of the context; the training on waste minimisation and waste management issues inside hospitals; the waste transportation and treatment procedures; the quality management of the process; the evaluation and the monitoring of the produced quantities and the established system; the optimisation of sterilisation parameters and process in order to reduce sterilisation time and fuel consumption.