Hospital solid waste management in developing countries: The case of Izmir, Turkey

Management of hospital wastes is a serious problem especially in developing countries. Most of the time these wastes are collected with the municipality wastes and dumped in the same dumping area without any special treatment or taking any precaution. Hospitals which aim to the contribute to the improvement of the public hearth, with their wastes become a source of several diseases threatening the public health. Authorities either are not aware of the dangers involved or afraid of the cost which they believe that will be extremely high. The Metropolitan Municipality of izmir was the first municipality to adopt the ''Regulation for Hospital Waste Management'' and to prove that even developing countries can solve the problem of hospital infected wastes in an effective and efficient way. In the paper the activities conducted by the Municipality for the implementation of the management of the hospital wastes are explained in detail.