Proposta de plano de gerenciamento de resíduos de serviços de saúde para o hospital Beneficiência Portuguesa – Porto Alegre - RS

Abstract

The majority of health establishments in the country do not have a Health Waste Management Plan (HWMP), and there is no control of the quantity and the quality of generated waste. It is known that inadequate management techniques render this type of waste as a source of both environmental and public health risk. Thus, UNISINOS and the Beneficência Portuguesa Hospital (BPH) in Porto Alegre created a partnership for the development of this project. The stages carried out in the research were: to compare federal medical waste regulations in Brazil to their state counterparts in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, to characterize the generated solid waste in the studied medical establishment both quantitatively and qualitatively, to propose a solid waste collection route and a HWMP for this institution, with a final cost-benefit analysis associated with all such stages. The BPH solid waste characterization indicated a total generation in the order of 7650 kg/month, which 66% are Hazardous Wastes (including sharps), 18% are Organic Wastes and 16% are Potentially Recyclable Wastes, demonstrating that an appropriate segregation is not occurring. The adequate waste management aims at reducing hazardous waste generation to levels lower than 40%. Besides complying with specific legislation, the proposed HWMP creates conditions for BPH to minimize the current generated impacts, with the possibility of environmental and economic gains.

Key words: Health Wastes, Health Waste Management Plan, Collection, Characterization.