Health Care Waste Management

Health care waste management is a major health and environmental concern. Poor waste management in health facilities puts health care workers, patients, and communities at risk of infection and injury from used needles and other medical waste. Effective health care waste management strategies strengthen health systems and minimize the risk of transmitting infections such as HIV and hepatitis B and C; they also protect the environment.

We apply our extensive experience in injection safety, supply chain, and capacity building to improve health care waste management systems, and thus the health system overall.

JSI’s comprehensive and practical approaches to waste management have strengthened in-country capacity to segregate, handle, store, and dispose of health care waste. JSI provides technical support to countries through all stages of developing a waste management system, from initial assessment to implementation, evaluation, and policy development.

We have explored options for the final disposal of unused and expired antiretroviral drugs and constructed waste management pits. We have also developed public-private partnerships to collect and recycle old insecticide-treated bednets into bio-composite wood boards and for final disposal of expired pharmaceuticals, an often-overlooked aspect of health care waste management.