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There has been an unexpected increase in the amount of healthcare waste during the COVID-19 pandemic. Managing healthcare waste is vital, as improper practices in the waste system can lead to the further spread of the virus. To develop effective and sustainable waste management systems, decisions in all processes from the source of the waste to its disposal should be evaluated together. Strategic decisions involve locating waste processing centers, while operational decisions deal with waste collection. Although the periodic collection of waste is used in practice, it has not been studied in the relevant literature. This paper integrates the periodic inventory routing problem with location decisions for designing healthcare waste management systems and presents a bi-objective mixed-integer nonlinear programming model that minimizes operating costs and risk simultaneously. Due to the complexity of the problem, a two-step approach is proposed. The first stage provides a mixed-integer linear model that generates visiting schedules to source nodes. The second stage offers a Bi-Objective Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search Algorithm (BOALNS) that processes the remaining decisions considered in the problem. The performance of the algorithm is tested on several hypothetical problem instances. Computational analyses are conducted by comparing BOALNS with its other two versions, Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search Algorithm and Bi-Objective Large Neighborhood Search Algorithm (BOLNS). The computational experiments demonstrate that our proposed algorithm is superior to these algorithms in several performance evaluation metrics. Also, it is observed that the adaptive search engine increases the capability of BOALNS to achieve high-quality Pareto-optimal solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research looks into the problem of poor healthcare waste management in Kenya. Most healthcare facilities lack enforcement of existing legislation for handling, and disposal of health care waste, an issue exacerbated by the fact that regulating bodies lack a systemized oversight plan of ensuring compliance. This paper suggests that setting up a centralized modern waste incinerator will facilitate in overcoming the problems outlined above. The study area for this study is Kilifi, a county which lies along the Kenyan Coast. The county has over 330 healthcare facilities. The main objective of this study was to identify a suitable area to build an incinerator to serve these facilities. A two stage analysis was employed to identify a suitable location. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) techniques were used to first screen the entire study area to eliminate unsuitable land that did not satisfy the eight economic, environmental and social criteria taken into account. In the second stage, Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methods were used to analyse and rank the potential sites. From the GIS analysis, it was found that only around 8.2% of the land was suitable. From this spatial analysis, eight potential sites were identified. These sites were then ranked using three MCDA methods, namely, AHP, VIKOR and PROMETHEE. This study differs from previous studies that use the GIS-MCDA model, in that three MCDA methods each with a different mode of operation was used. This was for the sake of performing a comparison on the results and to determine if there would be significant differences especially with regard to the best ranked site. Interestingly, the methods all identified ‘site 6’, an area near the urban town of Malindi as the most suitable. The rest of the rankings were almost consistent across all three methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthcare waste management (HCWM) is at problem in many developing countries. One of the main steps to implement a proper HCWM process is knowledge of the amount and composition of material generated. There are rare studies of the contribution of kitchen waste to the total mass of non-hazardous waste generated by hospitals in the world. This paper reports a diagnosis of waste generation by the kitchen of a maternity hospital in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Using the method established by the World Health Organization (WHO), non-hazardous wastes of all sectors were weighed for seven consecutive days in July and August, 2015. The average kitchen waste generated was 92.77 kg.day-1 and 76,73 kg.day-1, respectively, corresponding to 43.65% and 46.44% of the total mass of general waste produced in the period, although there was no positive correlation between the generated mass of kitchen waste and the number of meals prepared and served. We concluded that kitchen waste poses a considerable challenge to HCWM, mainly involving temporary internal storage, external storage and container cleaning, as well in the physical conditions of the workers that transport the waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the planning of vehicle routes in the city for collection and transportation of healthcare wastes. The aim was to layout of the vehicle collection routes used for five days a week to minimize the operational cost. In this concept firstly, healthcare institutions are pointed on the city map (Eskişehir/Turkey) by using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and data (number of personnel, bed capacity, generation rate of healthcare wastes) of these institutions were entered into data management system. Also, the amount of healthcare waste generated at the institutions in 2004 was determined and current status dealing with these wastes was examined. Finally, the vehicle collection routes were obtained by using the available data with the aid of Geomedia 4.0 Professional and Network Analyst. As a result, 3.8 % reduction in distances of Eskişehir healthcare waste routes as weekly was obtained. From the results it can be concluded that 3-day and 2-day healthcare waste collection routes will minimize the collection cost and collection time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generation of healthcare waste from different patient care activities in hospitals, pathology labs and research centres has been a matter of great concern for environmental and social bodies across the world. This concern comes from its infectious and hazardous nature which brings life taking disease such as human immunodeficiency virus and Hepatitis-B. Moreover, with the outbreak of corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic across the world, healthcare waste has become even more infectious like never before and showing its potential for claiming lives if not disposed properly. Additionally, the COVID-19 has put up another challenge in terms of exponentially increasing demand for personal protective equipments for healthcare workers such as doctors, nurses, ward boys, and sanitation workers. In this paper, seven criteria related to smart healthcare waste disposal system infused by circular economy aspects to recover value from disposables are identified and analysed using a decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method. The criteria have been prioritized by its importance and net cause and effect relationship through a causal diagram. Two criteria, (i) digitally connected healthcare centres, waste disposal firms and pollution control board, and (ii) providing a pollution control board's feedback app to public and other stakeholders, feature as strong reasons for a smart healthcare waste disposal system. Conclusively, this study provides a causal relationship model among the intertwined drivers of industry 4.0 and circular economy for developing a smart healthcare waste disposal system enriched with the benefits of circular economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]