American Journal of Environmental Protection

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Experimental Sorting of Municipal-Like Waste in the Hospital “Civico”, Palermo (IT)

Received: 23 April 2013    Accepted:     Published: 30 May 2013
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Abstract

An experiment of source sorting - based management of Health Care Waste (HCW) was carried out in 2011 in 4 Departments of the Public Hospital “Civico” (Palermo, IT), where the basic mandatory separation between hazardous and non-hazardous waste was already going on since year 2000.The experiment consisted in weighing every day for 15 days 4 predefined fractions collected in the Infirmaries (namely paper, plastics, glass and unsorted fraction), and the bags with unsorted waste from the patient’s stay room. Furthermore, in 1 of the 4 Departments also the boxes of Infectious Waste (IW) were weighed for a week.As a result a weighted average value of 0.56 kg of Municipal-like Waste (MLW) per bed and per day was obtained for the Infirmaries of the 4 Departments (1.89 kg for the whole Department). The potentially recoverable waste fractions of MLW were about 65.7 %, the balance being unsorted waste.The actual production of IW − monitored in just one of the Departments, OU 1− brought to a generation rate of 0.74 kg/bed-day with a range 0.50−1.00. This production represents the 54 % of total waste from that Infirmary but just 34 % of the overall waste stream from the Unit. This pilot experiment confirms the wide finding that IW are a minor part of the overall waste stream produced in a health care structure.

DOI 10.11648/j.ajep.20130202.16
Published in American Journal of Environmental Protection (Volume 2, Issue 2, April 2013)
Page(s) 64-71
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Healthcare Waste, Infectious Waste, Municipal-Like Waste, Waste Management, Sorted Waste, Waste Collection

References
[1] G. Wolff, "Health care waste management in the European Union," European Medical Waste Conference, Amsterdam (NL), 8 and 9 February 2011. http://www.emwc2011.org/
[2] Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives. Official Journal of the European Communities, 22.11.2008.
[3] Commission Decision 2000/532/EC of 3 May 2000 replacing Decision 94/3/EC establishing a list of wastes pursuant to Article 1(a) of Council Directive 75/442/EEC on waste and Council Decision 94/904/EC establishing a list of hazardous waste pursuant to Article 1(4) of Council Directive 91/689/EEC on hazardous waste. Official Journal of the European Communities, 6.9.2000.
[4] A. Prüss, E. Giroult, P. Rushbrook, Safe management of waste from health-care activities, World Health Organization, Geneve (CH), 1999.
[5] E. Vecchi, M. Martignani, S. Ferretti, P. Marchegiano, S. Cencetti, "La Raccolta Differenziata: il caso del Policlinico di Modena," in RS Rifiuti Solidi, XXIII (5), CIPA Editore, Milano( IT), 2009, pp.327–339.
[6] Decreto Presidente della Repubblica 15 Luglio 2003, n. 254: Regolamento recante disciplina della gestione dei rifiuti sanitaria norma dell'articolo 24 della legge 31 luglio 2002, n. 179. G.U. Repubblica Italiana 11.9.2003, n. 211 (Italian legislation)
[7] D. Komilis, A. Fouki, D. Papadopoulos, "Hazardous medical waste generation rates of different categories of health-care facilities," Waste Management, vol. 32, pp.1434–1441, 2012.
[8] M. E. Birpinar, M. S. Bilgili, T. Erdoan, "Medical waste management in Turkey: A case study of Istanbul," Waste Management, vol. 29, pp.445–448, 2009.
[9] ISTAÇ A. . ©, Istanbul Environmental Management in Industry and Trade Inc., an affiliate of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, www.istac.com.tr
[10] N. Marinkovi, K. Vitale, N. J. Holcer, A. Dakula, T. Pavi , "Management of hazardous medical waste in Croatia," Waste Management, vol. 28, pp.1049–1056, 2008.
[11] M. M. A. El-Salam "Hospital waste management in El-Beheira Governorate, Egypt," Journal of Environmental Management, vol. 91, pp.618–629, 2010.
[12] S. Altin, A. Altin, B. Elevli, O. Cerit, "Determination of hospital waste composition and disposal methods: a case study," Polish Journal of Environmental Studies, 12, (2), pp.251–255, 2002.
[13] S. R. Soares, A. Rodrigues Finotti, V. P. da Silva, R. A. F. Alvarenga, "Application of life cycle assessment and cost analysis in health care waste management," Waste Management, vol. 33, pp.175–183, 2013.
[14] S. Nicosia, A. Lima, P. A. Lanza, G. Viviani "Physical features of health care waste," in ANDIS Toscana (ed.) Proceedings of the International Symposium of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering "SIDISA’08" ANDIS / ABES / AIDIS. Firenze (IT), 24 – 27 June 2008
[15] S. Nicosia, P. A. Lanza, M. Mosca, A. Lima, "Health care waste production: measures and estimates in "V. Cervello" hospital, Palermo, Italy," in Guzovi Z., Dui N., Ban M. (eds.) Proceedings of the 5th Dubrovnik Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environmental Systems (SDEWES09), Dubrovnik (HR), 29 Sept. – 3 Oct. 2009
[16] G. Hammond, C. Jones, Inventory of Carbon & Energy (ICE) Version 2.0, University of Bath, UK, 2011. http://www.bath.ac.uk/mech-eng/sert/embodied/
Author Information
  • Dept. of Civil, Environmental, Aerospace and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering – University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

  • Dept. of Civil, Environmental, Aerospace and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering – University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

  • Consultant Engineer, Palermo, Italy

  • Regional Health System, Hospital “Civico and Di Cristina” (ARNAS), Palermo, Italy

  • Dept. of Civil, Environmental, Aerospace and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering – University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Salvatore Nicosia, Placido Alfredo Lanza, Salvatore Prestigiacomo, Rosa Mancuso, Gaspare Viviani. (2013). Experimental Sorting of Municipal-Like Waste in the Hospital “Civico”, Palermo (IT). American Journal of Environmental Protection, 2(2), 64-71. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajep.20130202.16

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    ACS Style

    Salvatore Nicosia; Placido Alfredo Lanza; Salvatore Prestigiacomo; Rosa Mancuso; Gaspare Viviani. Experimental Sorting of Municipal-Like Waste in the Hospital “Civico”, Palermo (IT). Am. J. Environ. Prot. 2013, 2(2), 64-71. doi: 10.11648/j.ajep.20130202.16

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    AMA Style

    Salvatore Nicosia, Placido Alfredo Lanza, Salvatore Prestigiacomo, Rosa Mancuso, Gaspare Viviani. Experimental Sorting of Municipal-Like Waste in the Hospital “Civico”, Palermo (IT). Am J Environ Prot. 2013;2(2):64-71. doi: 10.11648/j.ajep.20130202.16

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajep.20130202.16,
      author = {Salvatore Nicosia and Placido Alfredo Lanza and Salvatore Prestigiacomo and Rosa Mancuso and Gaspare Viviani},
      title = {Experimental Sorting of Municipal-Like Waste in the Hospital “Civico”, Palermo (IT)},
      journal = {American Journal of Environmental Protection},
      volume = {2},
      number = {2},
      pages = {64-71},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajep.20130202.16},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajep.20130202.16},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajep.20130202.16},
      abstract = {An experiment of source sorting - based management of Health Care Waste (HCW) was carried out in 2011 in 4 Departments of the Public Hospital “Civico” (Palermo, IT), where the basic mandatory separation between hazardous and non-hazardous waste was already going on since year 2000.The experiment consisted in weighing every day for 15 days 4 predefined fractions collected in the Infirmaries (namely paper, plastics, glass and unsorted fraction), and the bags with unsorted waste from the patient’s stay room. Furthermore, in 1 of the 4 Departments also the boxes of Infectious Waste (IW) were weighed for a week.As a result a weighted average value of 0.56 kg of Municipal-like Waste (MLW) per bed and per day was obtained for the Infirmaries of the 4 Departments (1.89 kg for the whole Department). The potentially recoverable waste fractions of MLW were about 65.7 %, the balance being unsorted waste.The actual production of IW − monitored in just one of the Departments, OU 1− brought to a generation rate of 0.74 kg/bed-day with a range 0.50−1.00. This production represents the 54 % of total waste from that Infirmary but just 34 % of the overall waste stream from the Unit. This pilot experiment confirms the wide finding that IW are a minor part of the overall waste stream produced in a health care structure.},
     year = {2013}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Experimental Sorting of Municipal-Like Waste in the Hospital “Civico”, Palermo (IT)
    AU  - Salvatore Nicosia
    AU  - Placido Alfredo Lanza
    AU  - Salvatore Prestigiacomo
    AU  - Rosa Mancuso
    AU  - Gaspare Viviani
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    T2  - American Journal of Environmental Protection
    JF  - American Journal of Environmental Protection
    JO  - American Journal of Environmental Protection
    SP  - 64
    EP  - 71
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-5699
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajep.20130202.16
    AB  - An experiment of source sorting - based management of Health Care Waste (HCW) was carried out in 2011 in 4 Departments of the Public Hospital “Civico” (Palermo, IT), where the basic mandatory separation between hazardous and non-hazardous waste was already going on since year 2000.The experiment consisted in weighing every day for 15 days 4 predefined fractions collected in the Infirmaries (namely paper, plastics, glass and unsorted fraction), and the bags with unsorted waste from the patient’s stay room. Furthermore, in 1 of the 4 Departments also the boxes of Infectious Waste (IW) were weighed for a week.As a result a weighted average value of 0.56 kg of Municipal-like Waste (MLW) per bed and per day was obtained for the Infirmaries of the 4 Departments (1.89 kg for the whole Department). The potentially recoverable waste fractions of MLW were about 65.7 %, the balance being unsorted waste.The actual production of IW − monitored in just one of the Departments, OU 1− brought to a generation rate of 0.74 kg/bed-day with a range 0.50−1.00. This production represents the 54 % of total waste from that Infirmary but just 34 % of the overall waste stream from the Unit. This pilot experiment confirms the wide finding that IW are a minor part of the overall waste stream produced in a health care structure.
    VL  - 2
    IS  - 2
    ER  - 

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