Hospital Waste Generation and Management Status in Rasht, North of Iran

Background: We aimed to evaluate the quantity of waste generation and quality of hospital waste management among all hospitals in Rasht, North of Iran.Methods: In this hospital-based cross sectional study all 16 hospitals in city of Rasht were evaluated. The questionnaire included information about general characteristics of hospital, daily amount of hospital waste, and the structure of waste management. The mean generation of hospital wastes were calculated as per capita rate measured in kg per bed per day for different kinds of wastes.Results: The mean weight of total hospital waste was 4.46 kg/bed/day (95%CI: 3.32-5.59) including 2.76 kg/bed/day (95%CI: 2.02-3.51) general wastes and 1.69 kg/bed/day (95%CI: 1.14-2.24) hazardous wastes. The hazardous wastes comprised 36% of total hospital wastes. All hospital adhered to safe management of wastes including segregation (100%), equipment with treatment technologies (100%), having suitable temporal storage place (100%), and storage for less than 24 hours in temporal place (69%).Conclusion: The percentage of hazardous hospital waste was higher than estimated percentage by world health organization. Regarding to observing safe management of wastes in all hospitals, there is a need to give more attention to sustainable development of hospital wastes in the acquisition and use of resources.