IIT Delhi shows path to select a sustainable medical waste disposal firm

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi have developed a real-time decision support framework to help hospitals choose a sustainable medical waste disposal firm.

According to the team, hospitals which encounter difficulty in disposing their medical waste in a hygienic and sustainable way can utilise the proposed decision support framework to choose a right firm for themselves. The study titled "Selection of Healthcare Waste Disposal Firms Using a Multi Method Approach" has been published in the Journal of Environmental Management.

"The research study shows the path to facilitate the hospitals with a real-time decision support framework considering numerous criteria and constraints for the selection of healthcare waste disposal firm," said Surya Prakash Singh, Professor, Department of Management Studies, IIT-Delhi.

This becomes more relevant in Covid-19 times due to the increasing amount of healthcare waste and its hazardous and infectious composition such as syringes, masks, PPE kits, face shield, scalpels, bandages, blooded cottons, heavy metals, and chemicals etc, he said. The aim of this study is to propose a hybrid multi criteria decision support framework integrated with mathematical model to tackle the issue of safe disposal of hazardous and infectious healthcare waste, he said.

"The study shows a direction to the hospital management in selecting economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable healthcare waste disposal firm. Literature of the last twenty-five years has been carefully sifted through for leads in the identification of the selection criteria," he added. The study identifies 10 key success factors from literature and field survey for selecting the best healthcare waste disposal firm. Findings reveal that experience of the firm, technology or disposal and waste collection infrastructure act as a cause in selecting a healthcare waste disposal firm.

The researchers believe the outcomes of the study will have ramifications for policymakers in the health sector, hospitals, and entrepreneurs involved in the medical waste collection and reuse and environment regulating agencies. "The decision model proposed by the study empowers the hospitals in the selection of the right firm for HCW disposal in a rational manner, reducing the confrontations between the various stakeholders such as hospitals, HCW firms, and environmental regulatory bodies like Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), thus creating a situation of peaceful coexistence," Singh added.