Study on Disposal and Treatment of Pharmaceutical Wastes

GRD Journals- Global Research and Development Journal for Engineering | Volume 6 | Issue 6 | May 2021 ISSN- 2455-5703

Study on Disposal and Treatment of Pharmaceutical Wastes Raghavendra R S Student Department of Civil Engineering Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering Rahul S Gowda Student Department of Civil Engineering Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering

Rajath R Student Department of Civil Engineering Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering

Pruthviraj S L Student Department of Civil Engineering Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering

Chandrashekar V C Assistant Professor Department of Civil Engineering Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering

Abstract The process of manufacturing something involves the accumulation of waste. The same applies to drug manufacturing in pharmaceutical industries. These wastes are more harmful than our typical domestic wastes. These contain chemicals in a larger composition, chemicals that are harmful to both human beings and the environment. In this paper, we will discuss the type of waste generated and its proper treatment and disposal methods. Furthermore, we will talk about better methods that are economical and eco-friendly.

Keywords- Pharmaceutical Waste, Waste Management

I. INTRODUCTION What is waste? Waste in general is the sum total of all unwanted and used materials including household or domestic waste, industrial, medical, etc. These wastes are considered harmful and toxic and hence proper care and technique is required to treat and dispose it. Usually waste from domestic household is incinerated, dumped on landfills, or let into lakes or other water bodies.

Not all methods used for waste disposal is considered scientific. In the following chapters we shall study about waste generated in pharmaceutical industries and hospitals, its sources, means of disposal including previous methods and thus shedding some light on the ethics of waste disposal and update methods than do not follow norms and rules of the governing bodies.

A. Pharmaceutical Wastes Pharmaceutical waste includes expired, unused, split and contaminated pharmaceutical products, drugs, vaccines and sera that are no longer required and need to be disposed of appropriately. The category also includes discarded items used in the handling of pharmaceuticals, such as bottles or boxes with residues, gloves, masks, connecting tubes and drug vials. Ideally, pharmaceuticals are discarded and treated by high temperature (i.e. above 850 degrees Celsius) incineration. (Kadam et al. 2016) After intake, pharmaceuticals are exerted with urine or faeces to raw sewage in both an unchanged form of metabolites.

This raises the question of what impact pharmaceutical residues have in the environment, which in turn requires relevant data on exposure and effects on aquatic living organisms.

B. Sources of Pharmaceutical Wastes 1) Pharmaceutical Companies: These are the major contributors. From the process of raw material extraction to packing and transportation of pharmaceuticals, we can estimate about 65-70% waste generation.

2) Health Care Institutions: These include hospitals, clinics and other institutions concerned with primary health care.

3) Personal Care Products Manufacturer: Since we are talking about pharmaceutical waste as a whole, companies that manufacture drugs that promote personal hygiene and aesthetics also comes under a viable source of waste generation.

4) Veterinary Offices: Just as hospitals that cure human brings generates wastes, it is only common sense that veterinary clinics too come under one of the top waste dumpers in our country.

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Study on Disposal and Treatment of Pharmaceutical Wastes (GRDJE/ Volume 6 / Issue 6 / 009)

II. LITERATURE REVIEW A. Incinerating using Solar Power A city based lawyer Shanavas Sainulabdeen from Kerala, designed a solar incinerator capable of producing heat of temperature 700 degrees Celsius. The prototype could burn 5kg of poultry waste. It was comprised of GI sheets and two number of 8’ by 4’ solar panels which could generate the power required to reach a temperature of 700 degrees Celsius in 5-10 minutes.

B. Solar Lajja The incinerator designed by a start-up based in Mumbai was termed solar lajja. The main objective was to incinerate women sanitary pads. They used three solar panels of 250 watts’ power and designed an incinerator with stainless steel parts.

III. OBJECTIVES 1) 2) 3) 4)

To provide a background, the importance and significance of proper disposal of medical wastes.

Describe the correct methods to treatment of unwanted and expired pharmaceutical wastes.

To determine new and effective ways to dispose medical wastes in a cost efficient manner.

To find loopholes and errors in previous outdated methods.

IV. METHODOLOGY – – – – – –

To achieve our objectives, we need to follow a certain path. A plan and its flow chart has been displayed in figure 1.

We chose the topic keeping in mind the rise in medical wastes in the past year due to the effects of the pandemic. Census shows that the impact has caused a major rise in waste generation that approximates to four to five times the waste generated annually in normal conditions.

It is our job as engineers to come up with advanced techniques to overcome the problem of waste accumulation and the harm that follows.

We took our job seriously and did all the research needed beforehand, followed by any visits to pharmaceutical companies and hospitals every week, keeping ourselves updated and at the same time seeking professional help.

After digging around, we found the numbers forecasting the amount of waste generated on a day to day basis. Although we can say that the methods used currently in India are outdated, it is simpler and quicker compared to others. We needed to come up with a new way that was not just economical but also which could take up more load at a time.

Solar incinerators are our choice. The design consists of galvanised iron sheets, solar panels, battery, generator, heat furnace plate and a chimney.

Fig. 1: Methodology

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Study on Disposal and Treatment of Pharmaceutical Wastes (GRDJE/ Volume 6 / Issue 6 / 009)

V. PROJECT DETAILS A. Objective based Work Analysis 1) Objective 1 To provide a background, the importance and significance of proper disposal of medical wastes. a) According to our first objective, we will now discuss on various methods that are used in the process of treatment and disposal of pharmaceutical wastes. They include: 1) Incineration Incineration is a dry oxidation process through high temperature, which reduces organic and combustible waste to incombustible matter and reduces the volume and weight of the waste significantly. This is usually applied to treat the wastes that cannot be recycled, reused or disposed of in a land fill site. The advantages of Incineration are it reduces landfill waste and saves costs, produces energy that can be reused, thus, reducing overall energy costs. Disadvantages are cause of pollution due to plastic waste releasing dioxins and furans into the atmosphere. Incinerators are banned in Western countries and Microwave technology is popularly used and considered safe. Lots of controversies exist regarding the use of Incinerators.

Fig. 2: A large scale Incinerator

2) Pyrolysis It is like incineration in which it uses high heat to destroy medical waste and produces lower levels of pollution than incineration.

Fig. 3: Pyrolytic Incinerator

Fig. 4: Autoclave

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Study on Disposal and Treatment of Pharmaceutical Wastes (GRDJE/ Volume 6 / Issue 6 / 009)

3) Autoclave Autoclave uses steam to sterilize medical waste. Some equipment has additional features to aid in disposal, such as drying and compacting. Microorganisms which causes infection do not survive beyond 800 degrees Celsius. However, as a precaution MOEF has stipulated a temperature of 1210 degree Celsius with 15 psi pressure to ensure the distribution of temperature to ensure complete destruction of microorganisms.

4) Electron Beams Uses ionizing radiation to destroy microorganisms Microwave technology prepares medical waste to be taken to the landfill. It is a relatively clean technology, as microwave treatments do not result in air or liquid emissions.

5) Bio-remediation Bioremediation is the use of micro-organism metabolism to remove pollutants. In situ Bioremediation involves treating the contaminated material at the site and ex situ. Involves the removal of the contaminated material to be treated elsewhere. b) Segregation of waste Table 1: Table shows method of waste segregation Type of Containers Disinfected Container/ Red (hazardous, chemicals) plastic cover Blue/ White translucent (body fluids, blood, organs, tissues, Plastic bag/ puncture proof human and animal anatomical parts) container Black (metal shards and waste sharps) Plastic bag Yellow (disposable items like cotton, blood bags, IV cans, etc.)

Plastic bag Colour Coding

Treatment Options Autoclave/ micro waving/ chemical treatment Shredding/ autoclaving/ chemical treatment and destruction Disposal in landfill after incineration Disposal in landfill after incineration

Fig. 5: Bio medical waste bins

2) Objective 2 Describe the correct methods to treatment of unwanted and expired pharmaceutical wastes.

Type Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Category 4 Category 5 Category 6 Category 7

Table 2: Table showing type of waste and its management Treatment & Disposal Waste Category Incineration/ deep burial Incineration/ deep burial Local autoclaving/ micro waving/ incineration Disinfections (chemical treatment, autoclaving) Incineration and disposal in secured landfill Incineration, micro waving, autoclaving Disinfection by chemical treatment (autoclaving, micro waving and shredding)

Human anatomical waste (animal tissues, organs and body parts) Animal waste, tissues, organs, body part carcasses, bleeding parts, fluid, blood, experimental animals used in research, waste generated by veterinary offices/hospitals/colleges and animal farms, etc.)

Microbiology and biotechnology waste (lab cultures, stocks and specimen, attenuated vaccines, human and animal cell culture, etc.)

Waste sharps (needles, syringes, scalpels and blades, etc.)

Discarded medicines and cytotoxic drugs (waste comprising of outdated, contaminated and discarded medicines) Solid waste (items contaminated with blood and body fluids including cotton, dressings, soiled plastic casts, line beddings) Solid waste (waste from disposable items other than waste shards such as tubing, catheters, intravenous sets, etc.)

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Study on Disposal and Treatment of Pharmaceutical Wastes (GRDJE/ Volume 6 / Issue 6 / 009)

Category 8 Category 9 Category 10

Disinfection by chemical treatment and discharge into drains

Liquid waste (waste from laboratory and washing, cleaning, house-keeping and disinfecting activities)

Disposal in municipal landfill

Incineration ash (ash from incineration of any bio-medical waste)

Chemical disinfection and discharge into drain for liquid and secured landfill for solid

Chemical waste (chemicals used in production of biological, chemicals, used in disinfection, as insecticides, etc.)

3) Objective 3 To determine new and effective ways to dispose medical wastes in a cost efficient manner.

To achieve this objective, we first need to summarize the different types of waste treatment processes that are being used in today’s world. The list has been thoroughly explained in objective 1. Based on industrial visits and experts’ consultation, we can estimate about 95% of all waste treatment facilities rely on incinerators as their primary treatment mechanism.

Incinerators use both fuel and electricity in order to achieve the required temperature required for combustion of waste.

But electricity and fuel are not readily available around the world. Although the apparatus itself is inexpensive, its maintenance, fuel cost and combustion, generators and regulators, electricity and frequent check-ups proves expensive with time. To add on to this problem, the question of pollution arises. Incineration is a process where unwanted, expired medicines and other bio medical wastes are burned and reduced to ash. This process releases a large amount of harmful gas into the atmosphere.

Fig. 6: A typical incinerator

During incineration, the temperature required to burn the waste should be a minimum of 850 degrees Celsius to 1200 degrees Celsius. In terms of electricity, to incinerate a ton of waste, we need to supply around 500-600 kWh amount of electricity.

Thus, this method is expensive. The electricity must be stable at a rate 500 kWh for every two seconds in order to achieve full incineration. But what if we rely on renewable sources of energy to achieve the required temperature for incineration.

Fig. 7: Solar incinerator

The above figure 7 shows a design model of a working solar incinerator powered by solar energy generator from the sun through solar/photovoltaic panels. These panels are made up of a junction of semiconductor Silicon and can be used to convert solar energy which is incident on the solar panels in the form of light and heat energy to electrical and/or heat energy. Thus, in order to achieve a temperature of 850 degrees Celsius, we need to generate around 27kW of electricity from the sun. For every ton, we will have to generate the same 600kWh of electricity but it will be done in a fuel free manner.

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Study on Disposal and Treatment of Pharmaceutical Wastes (GRDJE/ Volume 6 / Issue 6 / 009)

Fig. 8: Thermal radiation of sun on the globe

The application of solar incinerators is limited to only the tropical and temperate zones of the earth. As the necessity of power generation is high, using it in zones/areas with low solar radiation will prove ineffective. Figure 8 shows us suitable regions for its application. Since Karnataka falls under tropical zone, we can readily make use of this improved version of incinerators.

Fig. 9: Thermal radiation scale of different parts of the globe

Figure 9 shows the scale of thermal radiation of different parts of the globe which helps us analyse the average sum of energy that can be annually generated from solar cells. Most parts of Karnataka constitute to about 2000kWh for every square meter energy generation which is ample enough to incinerate a ton of waste every day throughout the year.

The design of the solar incinerator includes 3 solar panels of power 1kWh measuring 1meter by half a meter in dimension, a combustion chamber, an outlet chimney and an electro-photovoltaic set up that converts incident light energy into electrical and heat energy. The cost of one such solar panel is about Rs. 65000. The whole set up would roughly cost up to four lack rupees.

When compared to its predecessor, the conventional incinerator which only costs Rs. 90000 generates more cost in reference to maintenance and day-today use. Some of the advantages of solar incinerators are: – Fuel free operation – Fully mobile design – Ready to use setup – Can be used by a common man – Cost efficient – Eco-friendly 4) Objective 4 To find loopholes and errors in previous outdated methods.

As mentioned in clause 1.3, the government has authorized many organizations to govern and regulate the disposal of pharmaceutical waste. Some of the rules laid out by CBWTF are: 1) Collection of Bio-Medical Waste – Generator of the bio-medical waste is responsible for providing segregated waste in accordance with the provisions of the biomedical waste management rules. 2016, to the CBWTF operator.

– Dedicated temporary storage at healthcare unit shall be designated.

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Study on Disposal and Treatment of Pharmaceutical Wastes (GRDJE/ Volume 6 / Issue 6 / 009)

– –

The coloured bags handed over by the healthcare units shall be collected in similar coloured containers with proper cover.

The coloured containers should be strong enough to withstand any possible damage that may occur during loading, transportation or unloading of such containers.

– The person responsible for collection of bio-medical wastes shall also carry a register with him to maintain the records such as name of the healthcare unit, the type and quantity of waste received, etc.

– During transportation, the containers should be covered in order to prevent exposure of public to odours and contamination.

2) Transportation of Bio-Medical Waste – The transportation vehicle shall be fitted with GPS to track the movement of the vehicle.

– Separate cabins shall be provided for driver/staff as well as for placing the designated colour coded bio-medical waste containers.

– Two wheeler registered under the Motor Vehicle Act shall be permitted for collection of biomedical waste only from the clinics or dispensaries located in places where the lanes are narrow and not easily accessible to four wheeler vehicles.

– The base of the waste cabin shall be leak proof to avoid pilferage of liquid during transportation.

– The waste cabin may be designed for storing waste containers in tiers and also should be provided with a lighting provision.

– The vehicle shall be labelled with the biohazard symbol (as per Schedule IV of the BMWM rules) and should display the name, address and contact telephone and mobile number of the CBWTF. 3) Disposal of Bio-Medical Waste CBWTF guidelines provide for disposal of solid waste like treated plastic waste, incineration ash, treated waste sharps and glass waste, oil and grease waste and ETP sludge using different treatment systems such as autoclaving/microwaving, incineration, chemical disinfection and effluent treatment plants.

Table 3: Estimate of health care facilities not following the rules and regulations of the government States No. of Facilities Following Unconventional Methods Maharashtra 4667 Karnataka 2665 Kerala 1547 Bihar 1221 West Bengal 632 Uttar Pradesh 532 Tamil Nadu 507 Total 15699 Table 4: Comparison of mount of biomedical waste generated and disposed States Waste Generated (kg/day) States Waste Disposed (kg/day) Karnataka 62241 Karnataka 44817 Uttar Pradesh 44392 Uttar Pradesh 42881 Maharashtra 40197 Maharashtra 40111 Kerala 32884 Kerala 28997

As we are now aware of a few guidelines that are laid out by our government, let us refer to table 3 which shows the list of perpetrators of our country. These facilities do not follow proper disposal guidelines thus harming the environment.

From table 4, we learn that Karnataka stands first in violating the bio-medical waste disposal rules as only 70% of waste generated is disposed properly whereas the other 30% is either disposed on the streets or let into water bodies. Thus, to stop all this we recommend using proper equipment and following the rules of the governing bodies.

VI. CONCLUSION Medication disposal is an alarming issue today and gaining more and more awareness from the healthcare professionals as well as consumers. According to the report, Karnataka stands in the first place in the list of offenders as it failed to dispose and treat 18270 kg of medical waste a day. In a whole, MOEF indicates a total of 4, 05,270 kg of medical waste generated every day. Out of which, only 2, 91,983 kg is being disposed by proper methods. The remaining 1, 13,719 kg of waste a day is left unattended and often reenters the system. Thus, by using solar incinerators we can reduce the accumulation of waste and dispose them in a safer manner.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The writer wishes to acknowledge the contribution of authors of the papers referred in this review and for their impact in the former’s research.

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