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Global household infectious waste management strategies: a systematic review

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Abstract

Infectious waste management is a major environmental and public health challenge worldwide. Household infectious wastes are often mixed with other waste, collected, and disposed of without taking measures to reduce risks. With the emergence of the COVID-19 virus in early December 2019, there have been concerns about the dangers of infectious waste generated in healthcare facilities and homes. Therefore, this review was conducted with the aim of investigating the methods of household infectious waste management in different countries/regions and evaluating the factors affecting the management of household infectious waste. In this study, we conducted a systematic literature search in four electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and ProQuest) to answer the research questions. This process was based on the new version of PRISMA guidelines. In total, 52 documents out of 6742 were selected and evaluated. The review of studies based on content analysis led to the emergence of 12 main themes, 36 sub-themes, and 112 codes. The main topics included education and culture, management measures, legal social support, economic support, technology, control and evaluation, waste generation, classification and collection, temporary storage, transportation, processing and recycling, and safe disposal. The factors affecting household infectious waste management identified in this research can serve as a basis for future studies. It is also suitable for providing a comprehensive guide to the management of household infectious waste.

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Acknowledgements

The data were extracted from the M.Sc. project at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. The authors express their special thanks to all the people involved in the implementation of this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health in Disasters and Emergencies, Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

    Leila Mohammadinia

  2. Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

    Khadijeh Raei

  3. Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Faculty of Health, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

    Fathollah Gholami-Borujeni

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  1. Leila Mohammadinia
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  2. Khadijeh Raei
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  3. Fathollah Gholami-Borujeni
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Contributions

Kh-R, F-Gh, and LM: conceptualization and methodology. Kh-R and LM: writing—original draft preparation. LM, Kh-R, and F-Gh: writing—review and editing. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Khadijeh Raei.

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All the ethical points have been considered by the authors in data collection and the authors certify that this manuscript is the original work of the authors and that all the data collected during the research are presented in the article. This manuscript was approved by the Ethics Committee of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences with ethics code IR.TBZMED.REC.1401.354.

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Mohammadinia, L., Raei, K. & Gholami-Borujeni, F. Global household infectious waste management strategies: a systematic review. Waste Dispos. Sustain. Energy (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42768-024-00192-4

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