Incidence of healthcare waste in recycling materials cooperatives

ABSTRACT Healthcare waste (HCW) is all the waste generated by human or animal health care activities. HCW is classified into five groups, of which a portion presents hazardousness. Brazilian legislation recommends that waste belonging to Group D be recycled. However, based on the poor existing waste segregation, the forwarding of these materials presents risks to the professionals who handle them inside and out of health care facilities, including the workers within recyclable material waste picker cooperatives. In such a context, this study aimed to investigate the presence of HCW inappropriately sent to waste pickers cooperatives of a municipality in the south of Rio Grande do Sul. To this end, a qualitative and quantitative characterization of HCW incidence in the five cooperatives of the municipality was performed during the period of four weeks. From the results obtained, it was possible to verify the presence of HCW in the municipal selective waste collection program and that HCW quantities vary according to the waste pickers cooperative studied and the week being evaluated. At the end of the characterizations, 36.23 kg of HCW were quantified amongst all the cooperatives. Such results indicate flaws in HCW segregation and destination, either by the population and/or by health care facilities, in addition to showing the fragility in the municipality’s selective waste collection program. In view of this, it is necessary to implement public policies, both educational and supervisory, that can ensure greater safety in the work environment of recyclable material waste picker cooperatives.

摘要：医疗废物（Healthcare Waste, HCW）指人类或动物医疗保健活动产生的全部废弃物。HCW共分为五类，其中部分品类具有危险性。巴西相关法规要求对D类医疗废物进行回收利用，但受限于当前不完善的废物分类流程，此类物料的转运会对医疗设施内外的操作人员，包括可回收物料捡拾合作社的从业人员，带来职业暴露风险。在此背景下，本研究旨在调查南里奥格兰德州南部某自治市被不当运送至捡拾合作社的医疗废物存在状况。为此，研究人员于四周周期内对该市五家合作社开展了医疗废物发生率的定性与定量表征分析。结果显示，该市分类废物收集项目中确实存在医疗废物，且医疗废物的总量因受访合作社与评估周次的不同而存在差异。全部五家合作社累计检出医疗废物共计36.23千克。上述结果表明，无论是普通民众还是医疗保健机构，均存在医疗废物分类与处置环节的缺陷，同时也暴露了该市分类废物收集项目的运行脆弱性。有鉴于此，亟需制定兼具教育宣传与监督管理职能的公共政策，以切实保障可回收物料捡拾合作社从业人员的工作环境安全。