waste management

Effective management of healthcare waste is crucial for preventing the dissemination of pathogens and safeguarding public health. This study aimed to evaluate the medical waste management practices in educational hospitals of Khoy City, Iran.

This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 2021. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire that included inquiries regarding the types and quantities of waste generated, as well as the processes involved in the collection, transportation, and disposal of chemical, pharmaceutical, and infectious waste. The assessment focused on three hospitals affiliated with Khoy University of Medical Sciences, with 466 active beds. In light of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic during the study period, one hospital designated specifically for patients with COVID-19, along with two hospitals operating under standard conditions, were selected as the study population considering the number and variety of wards and the diversity of waste produced.

Waste management practices in the studied hospitals demonstrated compliance rates of 95.66% and 98.33% in the stages of segregation and transportation, respectively. The stages of temporary storage and decontamination showed moderate compliance, with approximately 75% adherence to established standards. The average total waste generated by the hospitals was 1505.9 ± 31.6 kg/day, with infectious waste comprising the largest portion at 67.2%. In contrast, chemical and pharmaceutical waste represented a minimal share of 0.5% of the total waste produced.

The results indicated a significant increase in the generation of infectious waste following the outbreak of COVID-19. Additionally, decontamination and sanitary disposal of chemical and pharmaceutical waste require increased attention and enhanced oversight.

 Dengue fever is a viral disease transmitted by arthropods. Given its significance in society's health and environmental sanitation's impact on its outbreak, it is important to increase awareness, monitoring, and prevention of this disease. Due to insufficient information in this field, this review article aims to provide insights into the factors influencing the spread of dengue fever.

The current review was conducted by searching the Web of Science, Google Scholar, PubMed, and Scopus databases using the keywords "Dengue fever," "environmental sanitation," "Aedes mosquito," "Drainage of water reservoirs," and "Waste Management" and articles published between 2000 and 2023 were reviewed and analyzed.

The findings of the study indicated that changes in environmental improvement factors affect the spread and prevalence of dengue fever. Additionally, the presence of stagnant water in ponds and pits, along with the accumulation of waste materials such as cans, plastic containers, and especially worn tires, has been identified as factors that increase the population of Aedes mosquito larvae. The study also determined that implementing measures such as emptying and weekly washing water tanks, as well as establishing a waste management program, can effectively control this disease.

The implementation of environmental sanitation measures in waste management systems, sewage collection, drainage, and water storage in reservoirs is an effective strategy for reducing the population of dengue carriers, and consequently, mitigating the spread of the disease. Open Access Policy: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Waste management has always been a significant challenge for municipalities. Alongside the formal operational cycle of municipalities, other stakeholders and actors also play an informal role in urban waste management. The majority of the segregation of valuable waste is carried out by these individuals. This study presents the waste management of the city of Kerman, focusing on both formal and informal recycling collection cycles and utilizing financial permits and municipal oversight to regulate these activities.

In this study, the waste management cycle model of the city of Kerman is initially introduced, emphasizing the formal and informal recycling collection cycles. Subsequently, a simulated model in MATLAB software is presented, along with a fuzzy controller system for determining the purchase price of recyclable materials by the municipality to compete with the informal cycle.

The model's results, including the number of individuals attracted by the formal network, the municipality's revenue from the purchase and sale of recyclables, and the sale of permits for a scenario with a permit price equivalent to ten million Rials, were examined. According to the results, the existence of an activity permit tool significantly impacts the municipality's share in attracting the participation of informal collectors throughout the city.

To prevent protests and a lack of support for the plan, it is recommended that the permit price be lower at the initial implementation stage, and the intensity of oversight be increased as much as possible to ensure collectors are required to obtain an activity permit. Issuing activity permits can not only enhance the financial benefits for the municipality but also have positive social and environmental effects, improving the supervision of individuals' activities.

Waste management as an inevitable byproduct is one of the most critical environmental issues in any society. Its management is essential for preventing environmental pollution. The aim of this research is to examine the management of production waste in the Azadi Sports Complex.

This research is a descriptive, cross-sectional, and empirical study that utilizies questionnaires, field visits, weight analysis, sampling, and determination of the physicochemical characteristics of waste. The questionnaire includes questions about the production rate, source reduction, separation, recycling, collection, storage location, transportation outside the complex, and final disposal of waste.

The amount of waste generated from the Azadi Sports Complex was 449.87±4.83kg/day, with the highest waste production observed from the Wrestling Federation (95.37 kg/day) and the lowest from the Kung Fu Federation (12.75 kg/day) and the clinic (12 kg/day). The results of the physicochemical characteristics indicated that the average moisture content was 47%. Combustible materials accounted for 67% with a high calorific value of 12807 kcal/kg, and the ash content was 42%. The dry and wet wastes were collected daily, mixed together, and stored together in an enclosed area.

The results showed that the waste separation, recycling, and storage practices in the Azadi Sports Complex are unsatisfactory. Additionally, there is no existing program for waste reduction at the source or recycling. Therefore, the establishment of a proper waste management system to mitigate the waste volumes in this complex is necessary.

 Through the recycling of separated waste, energy and cost are saved and less pollution is introduced into the environment. Therefore, appropriate solutions should be provided and implemented regarding the separation of waste from the source. In this study, an attempt was made to identify the factors affecting people's intention in waste separation using the theory of planned behavior.

 This cross-sectional descriptive-analytical research was conducted on 458 households in District 10 of Tehran. Sampling was done with a two-stage cluster method. The data was collected using a questionnaire designed in this study, and its validity and reliability were assessed. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and analytical statistics with Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple regression tests using SPSS (v. 16) software. Ethical considerations were considered throughout all stages of the study.

 Subjective norms, attitude and perceived behavioral control, respectively, showed the greatest effect on participants’ intention in such a way that, on average, for each unit increase of these variables, intention increased by 0.39, 0.31 and 0.14 respectively (R=0.678 and R2 =0.46).

 It is suggested to use the capacity of local trustees, schools and popular networks to improve the level of subjective norms. By providing waste separation facilities such as special bins and creating financial incentives, perceived behavioral control can also be increased.

Hospital wastes contain a wide range of microorganisms and require special management due to their dangerous properties, and their improper disposal is considered a serious threat to the environment and public health. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to determine and influence the educational intervention based on the theory of planned behavior on the behaviors of employees in the waste management of Hafez Hospital of Shiraz, Iran.

The present interval study was conducted in 2018 on all healthcare personnel (170 people) and service workers (32 people) of Hafez hospital of Shiraz, Iran. The statistical population of the present study was completed by enumeration. The measurement tool in the present study was a questionnaire based on the theory of planned behavior and knowledge assessment which its validity and reliability were estimated and used by experts. Other tools included a waste management evaluation checklist which included management infrastructure, separation, collection, transportation, temporary storage, disposal, and weighing form of hospital wastes. The present study was conducted in two stages before and after the educational intervention. In the first stage, before the educational intervention, information was collected through questionnaires, a waste management evaluation checklist, and waste weighing continuously for a week. Then the educational content was designed. Two months after the educational intervention, in the second stage, the health care and service workers completed the questionnaires once more. Moreover, the checklist was completed and the waste was weighed over again. Obtained data were analyzed using SPSS software version 22 and parametric (paired t-test) and non-parametric (Wilcoxon) tests.

The findings indicated a significant difference in the mean score of knowledge, attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intention among both group health care workers and service workers after the intervention (P<0.001). After educational interventions, a significant difference in normal waste per capita was found (P<0.05). No significant difference was observed in infectious waste, sharp waste, and pharmaceutical chemical waste per capita(P≥0.005). There was a significant difference in waste management in terms of separation, collection, transportation, and disposal (P<0.001). The infrastructure management and temporary maintenance were the same before and after the educational intervention.

The findings of the present study indicated that educational interventions based on the theory of planned behavior are effective in raising the awareness of health care and service workers and improving hospital waste management. Furthermore, the use of educational strategies and appropriate educational content can increase the quality of educational interventions.

many countries have currently put waste management as a priority on the agenda and are seeking to enhance its effectiveness by encouraging public participation. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the willingness of rural residents to participate in waste management processes in Jajarm County, North Khorasan Province.

The survey research method was used. The target population consisted of 4031 households from 37 villages in Jajarm County. The dependent variable of willingness to participate in waste management was measured with 5 variables, including willingness to pay for waste disposal, willingness to use special containers, eagerness to separate waste at source, eagerness to deliver separated waste, and tendency to cooperate with rural development. The impact of independent variables on the five dependent variables was evaluated by running five logit functions.

The results of the models showed that age, education, regular waste collection by village councils, cooperation with rural cooperatives and organizations, payment for waste collection, familiarity with waste management methods, health effects of waste, familiarity with the harmful effects of waste, communication with extension agents and rural health liaisons, participation in waste management training classes, and satisfaction with the village council have a positive and significant (p≤0.05) impact on the willingness to participate in waste management.

Providing educational programs and introducing the consequences of non-separation of waste on human health and the environment is effective in attracting the participation of people in waste management plans and should be prioritized in waste management programs.

The economic evaluation is a tool for decision-making based on data that helps to select and prioritize waste management components and their implementation based on economic criteria. The purpose of this study was a comprehensive economic evaluation of the waste management components by life cycle costing assessment (LCC) , Net Present Value index (NPV), and Internal Rate of Return (IRR).

The cost of each waste management component, was calculated by LCC for one tonne of waste in. The efficiency of each waste management component was obtained using the NPV and IRR indicators.

The results showed that recycling with 260%, and then composting with 40%, have the highest economic returns and the ability to return capital. The sensitivity analysis showed the profitability of these two processes despite the changes of ±30% in the influential calculation parameters.

In this study, comprehensive economic evaluation showed that using LCC, NPV, and IRR with their sensitivity analysis, simultaneity can have an important role in waste management decision-making.

Increased waste production during patient treatment emerges as a serious issue following infectious disease outbreaks. The current study aimed to investigate the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on medical waste production in Mashhad, Iran.

In this study, 4 referral (R) and 2 non-referral (NR) hospitals were examined. The quantity and quality of waste produced before (2018-2019) and during COVID-19 (2019-2020) were extracted from hospital records and noted in standard medical waste management checklists. Also, the number of hospital visits due to COVID-19 was determined and entered into the study by referring to the Treatment Deputy of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences.

The results showed that the mean waste production was 449.50 ± 49.45 kg/day and 436.04 ± 107.55 kg/day in 2018-2019 (before COVID-19) and 2019-2020 (during the outbreak) in R1, respectively, 3000.26 ± 227.46 kg/day and 3279.72 ± 153.00 in R2, 544.53 ± 107.10 kg/day and 666.32 ± 156.68 in R3, and 476.72 ± 15.96 kg/day and 635.41 ± 54.88 kg/day in R4. Also, the mean waste production was 219.6 ± 36.90 and 199.06 ± 49.58 kg/day in NR1 and 112.1 ± 29.55 kg/day and 108.8±59.1 kg/day in NR2 before and during COVID-19, respectively. Field surveys showed that despite the increased amount of waste production, all waste management stages, such as collection, transfer, and disposal, are being implemented in accordance with the guidelines.

The results of this study showed that the medical waste production rate is related to the prevalence of diseases. Considering the importance of medical waste management, it requires careful and correct application of national and international guidelines.

Background and

Production of household infectious waste is a constant concern and problem in home medical care services. Considering the increase of household infectious waste in recent years, this study was conducted with the aim of identifying strategies to improve the management of this type of waste.

This qualitative study was conducted using the content analysis method. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 experts in the field of waste management. These people were selected purposefully. Four criteria of acceptability, confirmability, dependability, and transferability by Guba and Lincoln were used to ensure the consistency and accuracy of the results. Data classification was done using MAXQDA2018 software. The data collection period was from 22 November 2023 to 21 January 2023.

Data analysis showed 13 main topics, including: education and culture, management measures, provision of resources, social and legal support, technology, control and evaluation, waste generation, collection, temporary storage, transportation, processing, disposal, and management challenges; and 30 subtopics.

The results of the present study identified different strategies for improving the methods of household infectious waste management in Iran based on the experiences of the participants. This could be a crucial step towards addressing the challenges and achieving better outcomes in the management of these wastes.

Improper management of hospital waste has become a major concern in many developing countries. The present study was conducted with the aim of ranking the health-environmental and management criteria of hospital waste using the multi-criteria decision-making approach of ANP-TOPSIS.

This research is a qualitative study. After identifying and determining the health-environmental and management criteria of hospital waste, the validation of criteria was done using the Delphi method and using a questionnaire. SPSS software was used for data analysis. In order to weight the criteria and sub-criteria, the Analytical Network Process (ANP) technique and Super Decision 2.2 software were used. Then, TOPSIS method was  used to evaluate and prioritize the identified sub-criteria.

Totally, 11 criteria and 44 sub-criteria were validated by Delphi method. Results indicated that “the participation of nursing assistants in separating infectious and non-infectious waste” (by weight of 0.705), “the participation of nurses in waste disposal” (by weight of 0.659), and “decontamination using hydroclave method” (by weight of 0.633) were found to be the first three main controlling health-environmental sub-criteria in waste disposal, respectively. Also, the sub-criteria of “participation of nurses in educational programs”,  and “participation of nursing assistants in educational programs”, and “changing the purchasing chain in reducing waste production” were identified as the most effective management criteria in reducing waste production, with scores of 0.778, 0.748 and 0.718, respectively.

Based on the obtained results, encouraging employees to participate in waste separation and management training, modifying the purchasing process with an emphasis on reducing hospital waste production, as well as regular and continuous monitoring can improve the effective implementation of waste management practices in hospitals.

Waste separation education is very important for students because of the important role of this group in attracting parental involvement. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of educational intervention based on the theory of planned behavior on the promotion of waste separation at source behavior among the primary school students in Khorramabad City, Iran.

This randomized controlled interventional study was conducted during the academic year of 2020-2021 among the primary school students in the city of Khorramabad. Eight schools were selected in a multi-stage method and the sample size was estimated at a total of 200 people, taking into account at least 100 samples in each group (test and control). Then, the educational intervention was performed based on the results of needs assessment for the experimental group during one month and in the form of three sessions of 60-minute training. The data were collected 2 months after the intervention and were analyzed using SPSS software by using independent t-test, paired t-test, and chi-square test.

Before the educational intervention, except for the score of awareness variable, all variables were not significantly different between the two groups; however, after the intervention, the two groups had significant differences regarding all of the studies variables (P < 0.050). The performance of the intervention group before training was 2.34 ± 0.73, which increased significantly to 3.11 ± 0.45 after training (P < 0.001).

Educational intervention based on the theory of planned behavior by promoting attitudes and evaluating the behavioral consequences of students in the field of waste separation behavior at source eventually improved the behavior of students; it is suggested that this educational method be implemented in other schools as well.

Today, sewage sludge disposal methods include drying, burning and application in land, but each of these methods has its own vulnerability. Sewage sludge management is difficult not only because of high levels of production, but also because of high concentrations of heavy metals and pathogens. Research has shown that the transfer of sewage sludge to organic fertilizers, including organic fertilizer, is due to its many advantages, including less heavy metals, easy to use with irrigation systems, faster absorption by plants, and increased their growth efficiency etc. which have been very much considered. The purpose of this study was to investigate the properties of sewage sludge and the liquid fertilizer produced from it.

In this study, biological sludge was transformed into liquid fertilizer using a 0.25 molar solution. Characterization of biological sludge and liquid fertilizer by conducting heavy metal concentration tests (Zn, Pb, Cd, Cr, Ni, Fe and Cu), total nitrogen, total phosphorus, soluble potassium, total sodium concentration, electrical conductivity and pH was done.

The results showed that total nitrogen, soluble potassium, heavy metals concentration decreased with increasing of organic matter extraction from sludge whereas, the amount of phosphorus, total sodium content, electrical conductivity and pH increased.

The results of this study showed that the liquid fertilizer produced from sewage sludge due to its characteristics can be used as a soil modifier in agricultural sector.