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18-Env-B5 Industrial & Hazardous Waste Management · May 2016

Question 23 of 24: Managing Biomedical Wastes — Liquid vs. Solid

Nivaar worked solution (AI-drafted; not reviewed by a licensed engineer)

Notes on this paper

Reference texts: Nemerow & Dasgupta, Industrial and Hazardous Waste Treatment, 2nd ed.; Metcalf & Eddy, Wastewater Engineering: Treatment and Resource Recovery, 5th ed.; Davis & Cornwell, Introduction to Environmental Engineering, 6th ed.; LaGrega, Buckingham & Evans, Hazardous Waste Management, 2nd ed.; CCME, Guidelines for the Management of Biomedical Waste in Canada (1992); Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), 1999; Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes (1989); Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) regulations on radioactive waste; provincial hazardous waste regulations (e.g. BC's Environmental Management Act and Hazardous Waste Regulation).

Question 23: Managing Biomedical Wastes — Liquid vs. Solid (3 marks)

Question text not reproduced: the examination questions are © Engineers and Geoscientists BC. Open the official past paper (linked at the top of this page) to read the question, then follow the worked solution below.

Biggest challenge. The biggest challenge in managing biomedical waste is infection control — ensuring pathogenic/infectious material is reliably segregated at the point of generation, safely handled and rendered non-infectious (or destroyed), without exposing healthcare workers, waste handlers or the public at any step of the chain, while also managing the physical hazard of sharps.

Liquid biomedical waste (blood, body fluids, liquid laboratory cultures) is typically disinfected (chemical disinfection or, for small volumes, autoclaving) and then discharged to the sanitary sewer under the facility's discharge permit, since a properly disinfected liquid poses no greater downstream hazard than ordinary sewage once its infectivity is destroyed.

Solid biomedical waste (sharps, pathological/anatomical waste, contaminated dressings and disposable materials) cannot go to the sanitary sewer or ordinary municipal solid waste at all — it requires dedicated puncture-resistant/leak-proof containers, a segregated collection and tracking chain, and treatment by autoclaving (steam sterilization) or high-temperature incineration before the residual can be landfilled as ordinary solid waste.