Management of infectious waste from hospitals

In October 1980, 80% (120/150) of North Carolina (NC) hospitals responded to a comprehensive solid waste questionnaire intended to identify their solid waste disposal practices. NC hospitals generated an average of 13 lb. of solid waste/patient/day and infectious waste comprised 5% to 11% of the total hospital waste. Most hospitals (greater than 66%) considered blood, isolation, laboratory (including microbiology), pathology, and autopsy waste as infectious, while other sources of solid waste were generally considered non-infectious. The infectious wastes were normally incinerated or steam sterilized before discarding. Nearly all hospitals (95%) used a Class A landfill to dispose of the non-infectious waste. Two-thirds of the NC hospitals are discarding blood, microbiological, pathological, and isolation waste in accordance with the CDC recommendations, while the compliance rates for the JCAH and EPA recommendations for these wastes were 94% and 24%, respectively. If the EPA modified its recommendations to include incineration of microbiological waste, which is practiced by 50 responding NC hospitals, the compliance rate would be 95.5% for these wastes and 61.7% overall.