Medical waste is divided into five categories: infectious waste, sharps waste, pathological waste, pharmaceutical waste, and chemical waste. Common treatment technologies include high?temperature incineration, high-temperature steam sterilization, chemical disinfection, and microwave disinfection.
High-temperature steam sterilization is mainly applied to infectious and sharps medical waste. Generally, it cannot process large volumes of pharmaceutical and chemical waste. In addition, it cannot realize volume reduction. Residues after treatment still need incineration or safe landfill disposal.
Microwave disinfection shows poor sterilization effect on medical waste with low moisture content and is not suitable for metallic medical waste. Furthermore, radiation produced by microwaves may pose certain risks to human health. Residues from microwave treated medical waste also require incineration or safe landfill disposal.
Chemical disinfection has the disadvantage that thorough sterilization is hard to achieve. Its treatment process imposes considerable impacts on the environment and is prone to secondary pollution.
High-temperature incineration uses high-temperature thermal treatment to trigger oxidative decomposition of organic components in medical waste, achieving harmless treatment and volume reduction of medical waste. Applicable to all five categories of medical waste, incineration boasts thorough sterilization, high waste destruction rate and prominent volume?reduction performance. With complete supporting standards and specifications, high-temperature incineration is a relatively ideal technology for medical waste disposal.