Occupational Safety & Health: Waste Management

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering waste management principles, hierarchies, hazardous classification, pharmaceutical disposal, and sharps safety based on lecture notes.

Waste Management

The collection, transportation, processing, recycling, or disposal and monitoring of waste materials, including waste-related laws, technologies, and economic mechanisms.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)

A strategy designed to integrate all costs associated with products throughout their life cycle (including end-of-life disposal costs) into the market price of the product.

Polluter Pay Principle

A principle stating that the polluting party (waste generator) pays for the environmental impact caused and for the appropriate disposal of the waste.

Cradle to Grave Principle

The procedure of controlling and managing waste continuously from its initial creation (cradle) to its final disposal destination (grave).

Life-Cycle Principle

A concept dictating that products should be designed, produced, and disposed of in a manner where all environmental concerns are accounted for and minimized.

Precautionary Principle

A rule specifying that all waste must be treated as extremely hazardous until it is properly identified and classified.

3 Rs

An abbreviated communication tool for the waste hierarchy that identifies waste choices in order of preference as reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Waste Hierarchy Pyramid (Preference Diagram)

A inverted pyramid diagram that prioritizes waste management strategies according to their desirability, placing Prevention and Reduction at the top as most preferred and Disposal at the bottom as least preferred.

6-Stage Waste Hierarchy Diagram

A waste minimization framework structured into six descending levels: Prevent, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover, and Dispose.

Waste Management Cycle Flowchart

A systemic flowchart mapping the stages of waste handling from Waste Generation through Storage, Collection, Transfer & Transport, Processing & Recovery, to final Disposal.

Municipal and Informal Waste Flow Diagram

A diagram demonstrating household waste routing through informal recycling or municipal waste transportation channels toward recycling depots, transfer stations, composting facilities, and landfills.

Pharmaceutical Disposal Methods Matrix

A technical summary table matching specific pharmaceutical types (e.g., antineoplastics, controlled substances, IV fluids) to suitable disposal methods and operational constraints.

Waste Encapsulation

A waste immobilization process involving enclosing or encasing waste in an inert material such as cement, concrete, or asphalt to prevent environmental contamination and human exposure.

Inertization

A disposal technique for pharmaceuticals that removes packaging, grinds the pills, mixes them with water, cement, and lime into a paste, and decants the mixture into urban landfill waste.

High Temperature Incineration

A high-cost disposal method using combustion temperatures greatly in excess of $1200\,^\circ\text{C}$ to treat solids, semisolids, powders, antineoplastics, and controlled substances.

Open Uncontrolled Non-Engineered Dump

A common land disposal method in developing countries where untreated waste is discharged without environmental safeguards; acceptable only as a last resort.

Engineered Landfill

A landfill constructed with special features designed to prevent the leaching or loss of chemicals into the underlying aquifer.

Highly Engineered Sanitary Landfill

A safely constructed and operated landfill site for municipal solid waste where the top operational priority is protecting groundwater sources (aquifers).

Hazardous Waste

Waste that poses a threat to human health or the environment due to chemical, biological, or physical properties, including infectious, pharmaceutical, chemical, radioactive, and toxic materials.

Non-Hazardous Waste

Waste that does not pose a significant threat to health or the environment, such as office paper, food waste, cardboard, non-infectious supplies, and landscape debris.

Sharps Waste

Medical waste capable of puncturing or cutting skin, including needles, syringes, lancets, scalpels, blades, glass vials, and broken glassware.

Autoclaving

A low-heat thermal disinfection process that brings steam into direct contact with healthcare waste for a sufficient duration to kill pathogens.

WHO Container Color Recommendations

Standardized waste segregation container colors: Black for noninfectious health care waste, Yellow for infectious health care waste, and puncture-resistant boxes for sharps waste.

Sharps Waste Color Coding

A specific color classification system for sharps: Yellow (infectious), Red (non-infectious), Blue (pharmaceutical), White (anatomical), and Purple (cytotoxic).