Healthcare Waste Report - Environment Health

In China, packaging bags and containers of healthcare waste are in yellow according to GB/T 3181 and
have the symbol on the surface which as shown in the Figure below. The external surface of the
healthcare waste transportation vehicle is white or silver gray and has the symbol on the surface as shown
in the Figure below. The figure and letter are in black and the background colour is in orange/red.
In Macao, healthcare waste is collected separately and sorted into two categories, contaminated (collected
in yellow bags) and non-contaminated (collected in black bags). Non-contaminated waste is collected
regularly by the waste management companies and transported to the Macao Incineration Plant.
Symbols to Indicate Healthcare Waste in China
Treatment and Disposal
Incineration is the most preferred method of
disposing healthcare waste in China. About 5%
of the disposal facilities use other technologies
such as steam or chemical disinfection.
Before the spread of the Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic, most
of the healthcare institutions in China disposed
their waste themselves. Small incinerators with
fixed or intermittent furnace were used. These
incinerators were simple, mostly without air
pollution control equipments and operated at
low temperature. These factors contributed to
severe secondary pollution and caused strong
public resentment as most of the healthcare
institutions were near the residential areas.
Some institutions disposed healthcare waste in
open dumpsites after the addition of lime as
simple disinfection or in some cases without any
treatment. Some healthcare waste such as
disposable syringes was recycled posing risk to
the user through use of infected items.
Within a short period after the SARS epidemic,
many makeshift incinerators came up. The
result of the general investigation organized by
CHAPTER 3_COUNTRY ANALYSIS
left: Symbol for packaging bags and containers of healthcare waste
center: Symbol for healthcare waste transportation vehicle
right: Symbol for temporary storage site of healthcare waste
the SEPA showed that there were 152
incinerators used during the SARS epidemic
with about 77 incinerators in the eastern
region, 42 in the central region and 33 in the
western region of China. Beijing City, Zhejiang
Province and Hebei Province had the most
number of incinerators. Constructions of these
incinerators were done within a short period
and hence the environmental performance of
these incinerators was susceptible.
In order to solve the problems related to HCW
treatment and disposal, the National Plan for
the Construction of Disposal Facilities for
Hazardous Waste and Medical Waste was
approved by the State Department in
December 2003. The National Plan,
emphasized on the centralization of the
disposal facilities targeted to construct 300
disposal facilities before 2007. This would be
expected to increase the disposal rate by 2,080
tons/day. Every city was expected to have a
facility. There were 283 cities at the prefecture
level before 2006. Facilities designed to handle
more than 10 tons/day were encouraged to use
rotary kiln and pyrolysis incinerator. Facilities CHINA
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