International Journal of Waste Resources

Abstract

Recommendations through a Complete Study on Healthcare Solid Waste Management Practices of Government Hospitals in Colombo, Sri Lanka

Liyanage Bundunee Chanpika, Athapattu Prathapage Priyantha and Tateda Masafumi

Eighteen hospitals in Colombo, Sri Lanka were investigated in terms of understanding the current situation of healthcare management. Out of these, ten hospitals are being administrated by central government and the rest by the provincial government. The focus points of this study were the following: 1) general information (i.e., names and types of hospital selected for investigation, amount of waste generated, numbers of beds, and so on); 2) waste types; 3) sources of waste generated; 4) segregation of healthcare waste; 5) waste storage, transportation, and disposal; and 6) adherence to regulations. Questionnaires and investigations involving direct visit were done to obtain more concrete data. The results of our study suggested that most of the hospitals investigated were neither satisfactory in terms of World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for waste disposal, nor on environmental grounds. Several recommendations were made based on information obtained through this study.