Abstract

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Health-care services in rural or urban settings inevitably generate wastes that may be hazardous to health or have harmful environmental effects. This paper therefore assesses the generation, characterization and disposal of hospital waste of some selected hospitals within Kaduna metropolis. Nine hospitals were selected for the study. The weight of waste generated in these facilities is measured after which the wastes were segregated into various classes. 927 kg per day was generated out of which 84% is non-hazardous and 16% hazardous. Waste generation rate in these facilities range from 1.14 to 2.32 Kg/bed/day and 0.13 to 0.50 Kg/out-patient/day. The composition of waste across these facilities include; non-hazardous, infectious, sharps, and pharmaceutical wastes. Out of the facilities surveyed, two have locally built incinerator for waste pretreatment, three employ the use of open burning method, and four facilities do not have any form of waste pretreatment. The paper recommends pretreating of hazardous hospital waste before disposal.

Keywords: Generation, Hazardous, Hospital, Infectious, and Waste