Correctly treating hazardous hospital waste is a legal obligation established by Presidential Decree 254/2003, the regulation that establishes the procedures for the disposal of medical waste and special waste that, given their characteristics, are similar to hazardous waste with infectious risks.
Such waste may be generated in a hospital environment, but not only: in fact, the regulation applies to hospitals, but also to outpatient clinics, doctors' offices, nursing homes, retirement homes, diagnostic centers, veterinary clinics and surgeries, and, in general, to all contexts in which special waste is generated that has a similar level of hazardousness to that of hazardous waste with an infectious risk. The obligation to properly dispose of these wastes falls on the facility that produces them, but also on individual producers, who may be, for example, physicians, dentists, pediatricians, health professionals working in private practice, and so on.
Waste of this type presents an infectious risk, and therefore must be properly managed to protect the public health and welfare of the community, but also the safety of the operators involved in their treatment. Indeed, those involved in the disposal of medical waste must be able to rely on machines designed to ensure the highest levels of safety and avoid any possible risk of contamination.
For this reason, CAMEC has developed and patented a custom-built machine for the treatment of hazardous medical waste, the Sterilmix 250. This bi-rotor is designed to reduce the size of waste produced in the hospital environment in a safe and efficient manner and to ensure the perfect sanitization of the shredded mass, allowing customers to significantly reduce the amount of waste to be disposed of in landfills and to operate in compliance with the strictest safety standards.
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How Sterilmix 250 works
Sterlimix 250 is an integrated system based on the principle of TT “time-temperature” sterilization, in line with UNI 10384 standards.Each infectious hospital waste is treated with a high-temperature sterilization cycle that completely neutralizes pathogens, making the output material safe, dry and ready for disposal.
The sterilization system is a bi-rotor with a high-efficiency central counter-blade, which integrates the functions of a tilter, shredder and sterilizer in a single machine through a technology for the treatment and sterilization of medical waste protected by a registered patent.
This solution provides excellent results in terms of efficiency and simplifies sanitary waste processing operations, allowing customers to easily obtain ground material of controlled size. The Sterilmix 250, in fact, integrates in a single machine the functions of:
- In-plant loading: hazardous waste containers (120 L or 240 L bins) are loaded into the shredder using a direct loading system, which allows materials to be tipped into the machinery without the need for manual intervention by the operator.
- Waste shredding: once the waste has been loaded, the bi-rotor system with central counter-blade reduces the volume of material by a calibration grid, preparing the waste for uniform sterilization.
- Safe transport: a hermetically sealed stainless steel transport auger is located under the grinding chamber to collect the shredded mass and any liquid component within the waste. This auger, which avoids the risk of contamination and leachate leakage, is used to transfer the waste inside the sterilization chamber.
- High-temperature TT sterilization: ground waste collected in the screw conveyor is conveyed to a sterilization chamber, where special electric heaters generate high heat, which raises the internal temperature to the value necessary for sterilizing the waste.
All these functions are carried out in a sequential and automated manner, minimizing the need for manual intervention. At the end of treatment with Sterilmix 250, the waste is transformed into inert material, classifiable as assimilable municipal waste (EWC code 200301), which can be easily disposed of in landfills or sent to the incinerator.
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All the advantages of Sterilmix 250
Sterilmix 250 protects the health of the general public and the safety of medical waste disposal workers because it allows for limit the need for staff handling of waste to a minimum.
In addition, such an integrated solution allows hazardous waste generating entities to treat and sanitize their waste directly within their facility, without the need to transfer waste elsewhere. This choice, in addition to helping to contain disposal costs, significantly reduces the risk of environmental contamination associated with road transport of waste that has not yet been sterilized.
The benefits, however, do not stop there: the ability to sterilize hazardous waste by turning it into assimilable municipal waste, in fact, enables producers to significantly lower the costs associated with the disposal of infectious-risk materials, and the reduction in the size of the waste allows for a 75 percent reduction in the volumes of material to be disposed of, further reducing the cost of landfilling or incineration.
For all these reasons, combining cost-effectiveness, efficiency and environmental sustainability, Sterilmix 250 technology falls within the parameters of the 4.0 and 5.0 Transition Plan, which guarantees special tax benefits to companies that invest in the direction of technological and digital transition. Companies that choose to equip themselves with a Sterilmix 250 hazardous medical waste treatment plant by December 31, 2025, therefore, not only invest in an advanced, sustainable and regulatory-compliant technology, but can also take advantage of the tax credit, according to the terms of the Transition 4.0 Plan.
CAMEC technicians are available to introduce you to the full potential of Sterilmix 250 and to propose the best solutions for the treatment of medical and hazardous waste. Choose an integrated solution that allows you to optimize the way you manage your waste, putting efficiency and safety first
