ABSTRACT
Biomedical wastes (BMWs) are generated during diagnosis, treatment, or research activities associated with human or animals. Safe and sustainable management of BMWs is essentially important in order to minimize the risk of infection from pathogenic microorganisms, hazardous chemicals, and radioactive substances of public health concerns. Direct impairment of human health, damage to ecosystem, and loss of microbial diversity are among the impact of biomedical waste because they contain toxic and infectious matter of serious health concerns. Both solid and liquid BMWs require various methods to reduce, reuse, recycle, treat, and dispose of unwanted harmless residue. However, liquid wastes pose more threat to human health and the environment due to their ability to permeate and pollute underground water, subsequently leading to infectious diseases. Nonincineration technology currently in use for BMW requires the use of thermal energy without the direct heat and other methods such as wet heat thermal process, microwaving, irradiation, supercritical carbon dioxide as well as chemical decontamination of same. Detoxification and management of liquid BMWs are costly and require more sustainable methods than solid BMWs. Microbiologically, wastes generated from biomedical sources are dominated with infectious pathogens of various genera such as Escherichia, Pseudomonas, Salmonella, Shigella, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus as well as fungi and parasites of medical importance. As the world is canvassing for nonincinerating methods of detoxification due to the hazardous substances that medical waste incinerator generates, special nonpathogenic bacteria are employed for important roles in accelerating the biodetoxification of biomedical waste via their hydrolytic activities, thus suppressing the proliferation of pathogenic organism present and hence reducing the risk of infection. This chapter aimed at elucidating the current eco-friendly nonincinerating techniques and microbial bioremediation of BMW for sustainable environmental preservation and safety.
