Framework for Sustainable Healthcare Waste Management in India

Abstract

Healthcare sector has witnessed a significant development in the past few decades, which led to relieve people from epidemics, diminished mortality rate, and enhanced patient care across the world. With this improved patient care, the generation of huge waste with hazardous, infectious, and toxic elements has shown tremendous growth. The management and disposal of this huge waste could be suitably carried out if the entire system of healthcare waste disposal would have been designed in a flexible scenario. The flexibility in healthcare waste disposal system has a vital place as it helps in meeting the exponential and uncertain need for waste disposal. Today, healthcare waste management is a major concern for governments across the world. Reports have been released regularly by various international and local bodies for creating awareness about the hazardous impact of healthcare waste on humans and animals. World Health Organization (WHO) has been actively playing a role in improving the situation of healthcare waste management by seamlessly emphasizing on the significance of creating awareness, technological and managerial solutions. The technological innovations are majorly unaffordable for adoption for the management of healthcare waste in developing countries whereas the effective managerial solutions are not available to the key decision makers, that is, hospitals and healthcare waste disposal firms, for implementation. Hence, in the present chapter, the flexible framework for effective healthcare waste disposal has been developed and presented.