Abstract
Worldwide, there is a growing concern about the negative effects of infectious medical waste produced during the COVID-19 pandemic and the contamination risks associated with waste management. Therefore, measures to ensure that medical waste is managed safely and in an environmentally sound manner will avoid negative health and environmental effects from such waste, thus protecting the health of patients, health workers and the public in general. Despite that infectious medical waste generation rate is important for management planning and policy development, there is a limitation on national data availability and its accuracy, particularly in developing economies. This study analyses the infectious healthcare waste generation rates and management patterns in Lebanon before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The estimated average of COVID-19-related infectious healthcare waste generation in this study is 39,035 kg per month or 1.3 tonnes per day, which constitute between 5% and 20% of total infectious healthcare waste in Lebanon. This study illuminates on the impact of COVID-19 on the existing challenges of waste management in Lebanon. It highlights the need for proper management and disposal of the amounts of medical waste generated to reduce contamination risks or related environmental threats, particularly during the pandemic. It also shows that Lebanon has a defective system for monitoring of waste from healthcare institutions and gaps in waste statistics. Finally, the study summarizes recommendations related to medical waste management, which can provide valuable insight for policymakers.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered diseases and deaths, created immense confusion for the world and modified solid waste management profiles (Klemeš et al, 2020; Penteado, 2021)
This study enables the establishment of reference values for infectious medical waste generation related to COVID-19 in Lebanon
The analysis showed that the isolated infectious medical waste has greatly increased with the increased number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, which more than doubled after August 2020, and continue to increase
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered diseases and deaths, created immense confusion for the world and modified solid waste management profiles (Klemeš et al, 2020; Penteado, 2021) This pandemic changed the behavioural and consuming patterns of people, resulting in a sudden change in the generation amount, composition and disposal rate (timing and frequency) of municipal solid waste (MSW), depending on location. Because of the fear of inadequate food supply during the outbreak, people continued to conserve food and thereby decreased food waste (Jribi et al, 2020) In their evaluation of the expected trend of medical waste flow along with the epidemic/pandemic crisis, Klemeš et al (2020) showed that medical waste generation increased sharply, reaching up to a 370% increase in some places such as Hubei Province, China.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
