A STUDY ON SOLID WASTE GENERATION AND CHARACTERIZATION IN SOME SELECTED HOSPITALS IN OKIGWE LOCAL GOVERNMENT

AREA, IMO STATE
Etusim, P.E.1, Ijere, A.O.1, Melariri, P.E.1,
Ogwo, P.A.2 and Ikonne, U.3
1Department of Animal and Environmental Biology
Faculty of Biological and Physical Sciences, Abia State University, Uturu.
2Department of Environmental Resource Management,
Faculty of Engineering and Environmental Sciences, Abia State University, Uturu.
3Unit of Public/Environmental Health,
College of Medical and Health Sciences, Abia State University, Uturu.
E-mails: soljant4real@yahoo.com & etusimp@gmail.com

ABTRACT

This paper reports the result of hospital waste analysis undertaken in some hospitals in Okigwe. This analysis was carried out between August and December 2012. Hospital wastes generated and collected from three different hospitals in Okigwe were categorized into five different classes of hospital waste. A total 95.51kg of waste was collected from the three hospitals; 60.54kg (63.38%) from H1, 18.9kg (19.7%) from H2 and 16.07kg (16.83%) from H3. GHW was the most prominent waste consisting of 64.6kg (67.63%) while the least waste type was RHW 0.09kg (0.09%).
SHW, IHW and PHW weighed 11.9kg (12.45%), 16.4kg (17.17%) and 2.45kg (2.56%) respectively. A similar pattern and order of composition was recorded in the three different hospitals. RHW being the least generated waste, followed by PHW, SHW, IHW and finally GHW. A total of 13.2kg of waste was generated per day at the three hospitals; H1 generated the greatest waste per day (7.57kg), H2 generated the least waste per day (2.01kg) H3 generated 3.36kg of the hospital waste per day. H2 produced the greatest Waste/Day/Bed (0.33kg) while H1 produced the least (0.09kg). H3 generated 0.20kg hospital Waste/Day/Bed. This study reveals the absence of modern waste/incineration facilities in all the hospitals and therefore recommends their provision in order to contain the rapid waste generation of the hospitals.