Environmental business opportunities in the healthcare sector in Hanoi-Vietnam | |
| Author | Le Anh Tuan |
| Call Number | AIT RSPR no.EV-11-08 |
| Subject(s) | Hospitals--Waste disposal--Vietnam--Hanoi Medical care--Vietnam--Hanoi--Environmental aspects |
| Note | A research study submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering (Professional) in Environmental Engineering and Management, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | This study was carried out to investigate the situation of hospital waste management in Hanoi City, Vietnam and to identify the business opportunities for proper handling those wastes in practice. In 2010, Vietnam has 1,186 hospitals with capacity of 187,843 patient beds. They are the largest sources of hazardous waste, generating about 350 tons/day of healthcare waste including 40 tons/day of hazardous waste. If not managed well, the toxic, carcinogenic, hazardous healthcare, and other hazardous properties of this waste pose a significant threat to public health and the environment. It is estimated that only 50% of these hospitals segregate and collect healthcare waste according to regulations. There has been significant media coverage on improper medical waste management practices. Achieving the goal of safe and cost-effective management and disposal of waste is a major challenge, requiring concerted efforts by government, industries, hospitals, solid waste operators, and individuals. Hospital wastes are categorized into Hazardous waste and Non-Hazardous wastes. Hazardous wastes are wastes that cause adverse effects to human health and environment. Non-hazardous wastes include general waste such as food wastes. It is important to separate hazardous waste and non hazardous wastes not only from public health and environmental point of view but also from resource recovery and recycling aspects. Better waste management such as abatement, segregation are necessary for optimizing the resource recovery. For moderately hazardous wastes, they must be pre-treated for health concerns recovery business. These become the opportunities for business development in all relevant activities such as raising awareness of the personnel from hospitals and current practices of waste segregation and disposal. Currently, Hanoi Urban Environmental Company (URENCO) is major body to taking care of solid waste for whole city of Hanoi, includes healthcare waste. The inadequacies in the current hospital waste management practices in Hanoi city are mainly defined in the aspect of recycling of hospital waste without treatment before recycling. The issues that need to consider are lack of appropriate protective equipments and clothing for workers and cleaner staffs handling of hospital waste, lack of training. This study is aimed to identify the opportunities for business development in handling with waste generated from healthcare sector in Hanoi city from introducing appropriate policy of waste management and appropriate recycling technologies of recyclable hospital waste by the administrative levels of hospitals and government. |
| Year | 2011 |
| Type | Research Study Project Report (RSPR) |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Environmental Engineering (EV) |
| Chairperson(s) | Visvanathan, C.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Thammarat Koottatep ;Preeda Parkpian |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Vietnam Environment and Construction Company (VICEN); |
| Degree | Research Studies Project Report (M. Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2011 |