As the number of patients is increasing, along with the growth of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, the volume of medical waste is surging as well all across the globe. In developing countries specifically, the volume of medical waste, such as photochemical, cytostatic, infectious, & pathological waste, biological safety cabinets, old X-ray films, chemicals, solvents, old medicines, and slides/paraffin blocks, is extremely high. Moreover, the regulations regarding disposing these wastes are quite strict and state and local regulations comply with labelling, containment, storage, transportation, and treatment of medical waste in a proper manner.
Owing to these factors, the demand for advanced medical waste management technologies is growing swiftly. Poor waste management, when it comes to medical waste, can put staff and employee care at risk and can further affect their patients, families, and neighboring population. Of not managed properly, medical waste can also cause environmental contamination. As per a report by P&S Intelligence, the global medical waste management market is expected to register substantial growth in the near future because of the above mentioned factors.
Medical waste management technologies are need for pharmaceutical waste management (including manufacturing and clinical waste management) and hospital waste management (including regular medical and anatomical waste management). The larger demand for these technologies was higher for hospital waste management in the past. This is because of the increasing number of hospitals and surging patient pool in these facilities. Other than this, the demand for medical waste management technologies is projected to be high both facilities in the years to come.
Medical waste is of two types, namely hazardous and non-hazardous, between which, the demand for medical waste management was higher for non-hazardous waste in the past. Medical waste can be treated chemically, by incineration, and autoclaving. Out of these, the demand for incineration treatment types was the highest in the past, which can be accounted to the fact that this method of medical waste treatment in easy and cost-efficient. Services that are included under medical waste management offerings are treatment & disposal, collection, recycling, and transportation & disposal. When geography is taken into consideration, North America made the most use of medical waste management services and solutions in the past.
This can be attributed to the growing adoption of advanced equipment for disposing waste, increasing healthcare expenditure, highly developed medical infrastructure, stringent government regulations in the U.S. regarding medical waste disposal. Apart from this, the demand for these services is also projected to grow significantly in Asia-Pacific (APAC), making the region the fastest-growing medical waste management market in the coming years. Within APAC, Japan is making the most use of medical waste management due to rising geriatric population, swift adoption of innovative technology, and development in regulations about waste disposal.
In conclusion, the demand for medical waste management technologies is increasing because of the need for proper disposal of surging waste volume from healthcare and pharmaceutical industries.
