Have you ever wondered where the
blood drawn from your arm by the
doctor goes once he is done with it?
Or the needle he used to draw that
blood? These things and other
items, such as scalpels and even
unidentifiable body parts, are
considered medical waste. No
matter if they are infectious or not
they need to be disposed of properly.
Almost 90% of our medical waste is
incinerated, or burned into ash.
Incinerating these objects creates
toxic ash, toxic landfills, and
devalues the land it is deposited on
by almost 10%.
There are many alternatives to
dealing with medical waste. Special
programs such as Waste
Management (WM) and Stericycle
are working to enforce these. One of
these ways is Electro Thermal
Deactivation. This is the process of
using radio waves to kill the
pathogens but not melt away the
plastic. This makes the waste more
suitable for landfills and lessens the
volume of the waste. Some other
ways are autoclaving and chemical
mechanical machines. Some ways
that you can help may be making
sure all needles you have used are in
their specialized boxes for disposal
and make sure that you dispose of
any object that may be infectious.
By: Mattey Hanten