Hospital waste generation and management: A case study of hospitals in Karachi, Pakistan

Abstract

The management and treatment of hospital solid waste are one of the major concerns all over the world, in specific in developing countries, because of its infectious nature in general. In developed countries, this type of waste is properly treated using technology and the disposed, but in developing countries, the problems still exist because of multidimensional limitations. One of the major limitations is the availability of baseline date for waste generation, classification, and analysis. The hospitals are generally not concerned about all these data. The major reason is the lack of monitoring of stack holders, i.e., local government, EPA, etc., in addition to lack of awareness in the community. The current study focuses on the collection of waste from major hospitals in Karachi. The research team collected data from the various wards of the selected hospitals. It was found that the medical and gynecology wards are the largest waste producers because of the number of bed. The civil hospital was the largest waste producer. The amount of kilograms per bed is in the range of 2.228–6.800.