How to Dispose of Medical Waste Caused by COVID-19? A Case Study of China

Min Su, Qiang Wang and Rongrong Li
Additional contact information
Min Su: School of Economics and Management, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
Qiang Wang: School of Economics and Management, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
Rongrong Li: School of Economics and Management, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 22, 1-18

Abstract: The rapid increase in novel coronavirus (COVID-19) patients also means a rapid increase in medical waste that could carry the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). How to safely dispose of medical waste caused by COVID-19 is a huge challenge that needs to be solved urgently. The outbreak of the COVID-19 has led to a significant increase in the daily generation of medical waste in China and has placed a severe test on the Chinese medical waste disposal system. Unlike ordinary wastes and garbage, medical waste that is untreated or incompletely treated will not only cause environmental pollution, but also directly or indirectly cause infections and endanger people’s health. Faced with difficulties, the Chinese government formulated a policy for medical waste management and a response plan for the epidemic, which provides policy guarantee for the standardized disposal of epidemic medical waste. In addition, the government and medical institutions at all levels formed a comprehensive, refined, and standardized medical treatment process system during research and practice. China has increased the capacity of medical waste disposal in various places by constructing new centralized disposal centers and adding mobile disposal facilities. China has achieved good results in the fight against COVID-19, and the pressure on medical waste disposal has been relieved to a certain extent. However, the global epidemic situation is severe. How to ensure the proper and safe disposal of medical waste is related to the prevention and control of the epidemic situation. This study summarizes China’s experience in the disposal of medical waste in the special case of COVID-19 and hopes to provide some reference for other countries in the disposal of medical waste.

Keywords: COVID-19; coronavirus; medical waste; emergency disposal; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/22/12127/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/22/12127/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:22:p:12127-:d:682673

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().