Composition analysis of dental solid waste in Brazil.
When developing proper waste management strategies, it is essential to characterize the volume and composition of solid waste. The aim of this work was to evaluate the composition of dental waste produced by three dental health services in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Two universities, one public and one private, and one public dental health service were selected. Waste collection took place from March to November 2007. During this period, three samples were collected from each dental health service. The total amount of dental waste produced in one day of dental work was manually separated into three categories: infectious and potentially infectious waste, accounting for 24.3% of the total waste; non-infectious waste, accounting for 48.1%; and domestic-type waste, accounting for 27.6% (percentages are for mean weights of solid waste). Our results showed that most of the waste considered as biomedical may be misclassified, consequently making the infectious waste amount appear much larger. In addition, our results suggest that the best waste minimization method is recycling, and they help to define an appropriate waste management system in all three of the dental health services involved in this study.
Vieira
Cristina Dutra
CD
Departamento de Microbiologia - ICB/UFMG, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627 - Campus Pampulham, 31.270-901 Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
de Carvalho
Maria Auxiliadora Roque
MA
de Menezes Cussiol
Noil Amorim
NA
Alvarez-Leite
Maria Eugênia
ME
Dos Santos
Simone Gonçalves
SG
da Fonseca Gomes
Renata Maria
RM
Silva
Marcos Xavier
MX
de Macêdo Farias
Luiz
L
D001938:Brazil; D003752:Dental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018057:Dental Waste / Q000032:analysis*; D017744:Medical Waste Disposal / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
D018057:Dental Waste; D017744:Medical Waste Disposal