The management of waste produced in hospitals is governed by specific regulations, aimed at protecting public health and ensuring the proper management of potentially hazardous waste that requires specific treatment in order to be disposed of safely.
The relevant legal text is DPR 254/2003, which repealed previous regulations and specifies how healthcare facilities must manage their waste to protect both the safety of the operators responsible for its disposal and the well-being of the community.
Types of Medical Waste
All public or private facilities that perform medical or veterinary activities of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and research produce a large quantity of different types of waste daily, with varying characteristics and levels of hazard. According to the law, all this waste must be classified as "medical waste," but this definition does not refer to its actual level of danger, since it contains very different types of waste, which therefore require specific and differentiated treatments.
For example, there is waste that can immediately be assimilated to municipal solid waste, such as packaging, food scraps produced during meal preparation, the contents of bins in bathrooms and corridors, batteries, toners, and so on. This type of waste, although classified as "medical waste" because it is produced within facilities that perform medical activities, is not special waste and therefore can be disposed of according to the normal procedures for municipal solid waste. Its treatment does not require special records or precautions, beyond the normal care in differentiating the components to separate, where possible, the organic part from paper or plastic, to be sent to their respective recycling plants.
The treatment of waste that could potentially pose a risk to public health is different, such as:
- Infectious waste (catheters, disposable gloves or gowns used by healthcare personnel, products used for dressings, etc.)
- Waste produced during research and diagnostic activities (such as culture media used for certain analyses, laboratory plates, etc.)
- Sharp waste (needles, scalpels, etc.)
- Waste containing anatomical parts
- Expired, damaged, or otherwise unusable medicines
- Waste chemicals
The Correct Treatment of Medical Waste
The disposal of medical waste is a complex process, and for this reason, the regulations emphasize the importance of correctly training hospital staff responsible for managing it. This makes it possible to minimize health risks for operators and reduce the risk of infection, while also promoting the correct differentiation of the various types of waste to maximize the amount of material properly recovered and sent for recycling.
It is therefore essential that medical waste is properly separated to differentiate the component assimilable to municipal solid waste from infectious waste or waste containing sharp objects. Once this differentiation is made, the waste must then follow different protocols for storage, handling, and treatment.
As we have seen, while waste assimilable to municipal solid waste does not require special treatment, special medical waste must be managed differently depending on its degree of danger. If it is classified as "non-hazardous" or "hazardous, but not at risk of infection," it must be treated as special waste and stored in separate deposits before being handed over to authorized companies, which will manage its correct treatment in dedicated facilities.
Infectious medical waste, on the other hand, requires additional precautions, as it must be collected and stored in special sealed containers to avoid posing a health risk, and must be disposed of within five days (a term that is extended to thirty days for quantities of waste less than 200 liters). All phases of storage and handling of this waste must involve the use of airtight containers, which must be used until the waste is sent to the sterilization plant where it will undergo a sanitization process that, through the use of special machinery, will reduce its bacterial load to below the limit specified by law. In this way, hazardous waste is transformed into waste that is completely comparable to municipal solid waste, no longer dangerous to public health.
The current legislation indicates that, for better management and reduction of the risk of infection, sterilization should take place within the hospital facility itself, through certified systems subject to periodic checks. However, this suggestion is not an obligation for healthcare facilities, and the treatment of infectious waste can also be carried out externally, provided that the storage and handling of the waste during transport are managed safely and correctly, as required by law.
The CAMEC technicians are available to all entities involved in the treatment of medical waste and provide consultancy for the design and construction of customized systems.
We offer tailored solutions that, based on the specific needs of our clients, can guarantee full compliance with current regulations and optimize waste treatment, minimizing risk and ensuring the safety of operators in all phases of work.
