Solar disinfection of infectious biomedical waste: a new approach for developing countries

Poor developing countries cannot afford expensive technologies such as incineration for management of infectious biomedical waste. We assessed solar heating as an alternative technology. We immersed simulated infectious waste with added challenge bacteria in water in a box-type solar cooker, which was left in the sun for 6 h. In 24 sets of observations, the amount of viable bacteria was reduced by about 7 log. We also tested infectious medical waste with a heavy load of bacteria (108–109/g) from our hospitalʹs burn unit for solar heat disinfection in 20 experiments. Our results showed a similar 7 log reduction in the amount of viable bacteria. Solar heating thus seems to be a cheap method to disinfect infectious medical waste in less economically developed countries.