This is one of the options to the conventional plastics. The BDP are similar to conventional plastics in all aspects with the additional quality of being able to naturally decompose and break into natural and safe byproducts.
Published in Chapter:
Analyses of the Recycling Potential of Medical Plastic Wastes
Nasreena Sajjad (University of Kashmir, India), Sumaya Hassan (University of Kashmir, India), Jasfeeda Qadir (University of Kashmir, India), Rohaya Ali (University of Kashmir, India), and Durdana Shah (University of Kashmir, India)
Copyright: © 2020
|Pages: 22
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-9452-9.ch010
Abstract
Medical wastes have been historically disposed of either in landfills or treated in poorly-designed or inadequately-controlled incinerators that leads to the release of a significant quantity of hazardous pollutants, such as dioxins and heavy metals including Cd, Hg and Pb in the environment. This has led to increased public concerns over the disposal of medical wastes. Plastic is one of the most important components of the medical waste. The plastic content (20–25% by weight) of medical waste is significantly higher than that of municipality solid waste. Therefore, recycling of plastics should be increased to save landfill space and also to reduce expensive disposal cost of medical wastes. The recycling issues like risk of transmitting infections, improper collection and separation, can be resolved by proper management, education and innovative waste collection and disposal policies. Analysis and use of alternative products should always be considered as an important part of any recycling program.