• What's Wrong with Incineration
• Non-Incineration Medical Waste Treatment
• Tools for Waste Handlers
• Waste Audit Tools
• Additional Resources

What's Wrong with Incineration

Fact Sheets

• What's Wrong with Incineration (pdf)
• Dioxin, PVC and Health Care (pdf)
• Why Health Care is Moving Away from the Hazardous Plastic PVC (pdf)

Non-Incineration Medical Waste Treatment

Reports

• Human Rights Council Report of the Special Rapporteur (pdf)
• HCWH Submission on Medical Waste and Human Rights (pdf) by Ruth Stringer
• Appendix 1: Country Case Studies (pdf)
• Read Press Release from the Human Rights Commission
• Global Inventory of Alternative Technologies, June 2007 (pdf). A global listing of non-burn technologies for the treatment of infectious wastes.
• Alternative Technologies Report: This 2001 report from HCWH compares 50 technologies for treating and disinfecting medical waste. The report concludes that there are viable, cost-effective alternatives to incineration that are safer, cleaner, do not produce dioxin, and are just as effective at disinfecting medical waste. (pdf)

Fact Sheet

Evaluating Non-Incineration Alternatives: A tool for health care staff and concerned community members, May 2000 (pdf)

Tools for Waste Handlers

Fact Sheets

• Waste Minimization, Segregation and Recycling in Hospitals (pdf)
• Recycling Fact Sheet (pdf)
• Waste Minimization Resources (pdf)

White Papers

• Reprocessing Single-use Medical Devices (pdf), proceedings from the Setting Healthcare's Environmental Agenda conference, October 16, 2000
• Waste Management (pdf), proceedings from the Setting Healthcare's Environmental Agenda conference, October 16, 2000.

For more information on waste treatment technologies and alternatives to the dangerous practice of incineration, see Alternatives to Incineration.

Waste Audit Tools

Practice Greenhealth has a robust set of tools and resources for assisting healthcare facilities in tracking, managing and minimizing their waste streams. Learn more at:

• Developing a Waste Baseline
• Setting Waste Goals
• Benchmarking Waste Performance
• Waste Categories and Types
• Waste Tools & Resources
• Greenhealth Tracker

Learn more about the different kinds of waste healthcare produces and how your organization can begin reducing the waste it generates.

• Regulated Medical Waste (infectious, biohazardous or red bag waste)
• Solid Waste (black or clear bag waste, municipal waste)
• Hazardous Waste
• Recycling
• Universal Waste
• Pharmaceutical Waste
• Composting
• Beneficial Reuse (donated supplies, equipment & furniture)
• Construction & Demolition Debris

Additional Resources

• Join Practice Greenhealth
  Practice Greenhealth is a nonprofit membership organization founded on the principles of positive environmental stewardship and best practices by organizations in the healthcare community. www.practicegreenhealth.org
• The GEF Project
  We are collaborating with the World Health Organization and the United Nations Development Programme on a Global Environment Facility funded project to reduce environmental releases of dioxins and mercury by demonstrating and promoting best techniques and practices for reducing and managing health care waste in urban and rural settings in seven countries.
• Immunization Waste
  Today it is still standard practice for international agencies carrying out immunization campaigns to instruct their field operations managers to burn the sharps and PVC syringes onsite. Ironically, while these all important immunization initiatives may be safeguarding public health in the short-term, in the long run they are creating potential public health problems through the inadequate disposal of their waste. In 2004 HCWH, in collaboration with the Philippine Department of Health, HCWH demonstrated that immunization waste can be disposed of safely, cheaply and in an environmentally sound fashion without the use of incinerators.
• WasteMed
  WasteMed is an on-line resource for medical waste regulations, storage, treatment, and disposal.
• Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance