Medical waste generation and management in medical clinics in South of Iran

Medical wastes account for around 1–2% of urban wastes, which are very important in terms of health. In this regard, they are very important and can jeopardize human health. The aim of this study was to determine the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the wastes in medical clinics in the south of Iran and in order to present suitable management solutions. First, 14 medical clinics were chosen and 24 samples were taken from each clinic (two samples per month) with a total 336 samples. Considering the special properties and the risk potential, the wastes generated in medical clinics were categorized as infections and special waste groups. In terms of properties, they were classified as pseudo-household, infectious, sharp, pharmaceutical, and paper wastes. Once the samples were collected, they were weighed and the results were analyzed by SPSS. The results indicated that in terms of quantity, the waste generated in the first and second groups was 8550.377 and 8053.71 kg/year, respectively. Furthermore, most of the wastes generated in the first and second groups accounted for pseudo-household (80.7%) and infectious (72.77%) wastes, respectively. Due to presence of the specialty of pathology laboratory in the second group, the quantity of infectious waste has increased. Therefore, for proper management of medical wastes in the studied clinics, the clinics of the studied study should implement and apply the rules of waste management properly. Furthermore, training physicians and employees in clinics about reducing, recycling, and collecting wastes in a separate form in clinics should be done in priority. • In this study, the classification of Basel convention and World Health Organization was considered as the basis of waste classification. • The results indicated that in the first group of the studied clinics, the order of the waste quantity was as follows: pseudo-household > infectious > sharp > paper. • Due to large amounts of hazardous infectious wastes in the second group of the studied medical clinics, it necessitates proper management of collection and disposal of these wastes. • Results can be used to improve the management of waste generation practices in medical clinics with high risk and special wastes potential.