Generation and management of medical waste in Serbia: A review

Abstract

This study presents generation, quantities and medical waste (MW) management in Serbia. It represents assessment methods and total annual MW generation by categories. It was concluded that pharmaceutical (64%) and infectious (32%) MW production is the largest. According to available data, MW management in Serbia is currently at low level, except when it comes to infectious waste. Research proposed simpler treatment methods in existing autoclaves and complex methods (incineration and plasma-pyrolysis), as well as short-term and long-term solutions. Predicted MW growing amount requires existing capacity increase for processing and new solutions application. Installed autoclaves capacity could be increased by increasing working time, in order to avoid additional investment. However, treatment in autoclave is only suitable for infectious MW. For other medical waste, which main fractions are pharmaceutical and chemical waste, there is no infrastructure. As temporary solution, pharmaceutical waste is treated abroad which in longer period is not financially feasible. Considering that MW treatment in Serbia currently is based on health facilities network equipped with autoclaves, as central (CTF) and local (LTF) treatments facilities for infectious waste treatment, it is recommended additional capacity implementation for treatment of non-infectious waste to this network, with simultaneous management level optimization of whole MW.

Keywords

• medical waste
• hazardous waste
• generation
• management