Medical hazardous wastes are general and hospital wastes that threaten the public’s health, and the environment. Every year, more than 400 million tons — 800 billion pounds — of these chemical wastes and biohazard wastes are produced, and that’s not even the worst of it.
Here are three facts about medical checmical wastes that will shock you.
There Are 13 Tons of Hazardous Waste Produced Every Singe Second.
For every second that passes, 13 tons of hazardous wastes — be they chemical wastes or biohazard wastes — are produced. This means that by the time you finish reading this sentence, more than 26,000 pounds of hazardous wastes will have been produced all across the word.
It’s Getting Worse.
Things aren’t getting better, either. In just one generation the production of man-made chemical wastes has increased by a staggering 40,000% — leaping from just 1 million to 400 million tons.
Though many companies and services help with hazardous waste management in hospitals, the production of biologically hazardous and chemical wastes is still deeply troubling, because medical facilities are not the only source of these destructive materials. These hazardous and chemical wastes also come from the products consumers use and toss every day. For example, electronics, pharmaceuticals, paints, cleaning products, cosmetics, and batteries are all forms of chemical wastes, and need to be treated and disposed of separately — apart from the rest of consumes’ general wastes.
If these wastes are continued to be disposed of haphazardly, then the world will eventually have an ecological crisis of overwhelming proportion on its hands, and considering just how much is being dumped every day, it’s arguable that there’s already one plaguing the world today.
The saddest part of all this is that it can easily be avoided. Consumers just need to be careful with what they throw away, and how. If you have any questions about the proper disposal of hazardous wastes, feel free to ask in the comments. References.