A comparative economic analysis for medical waste treatment options

Abstract

Management practices for medical waste should be conducted using the best available techniques in order to minimize harmful effects of medical waste. Most common practices in Turkey were reported to be burying with lime and incineration. Although incineration stood out as a better option in terms of environmental and public health, it produced air pollutants such as dioxin, furan and co-planar PCBs as a result of incomplete burning of plastics. Consequently three options, namely converter, autoclave, and ozonator technologies were investigated for economic feasibility in the medical waste treatment field, ozonator technology was concluded to be the economically best option.