Medical Waste Management Market to Top $8.8B by 2028

One patient’s trash is another man’s treasure.

And medical waste is proving to be quite a treasure. Vantage Market Research estimates the global medical waste management market was worth $6.5 Billion in 2021 and will swell 5.2% annually to reach $8.8 Billion by 2028. Growth factors include an increasing volume of medical waste, a stringent regulatory framework for safe and environmental medical waste management, the development of healthcare infrastructure, better awareness programs promoting medical waste management.
 
Medical waste is the garbage generated as a result of therapy and surgical procedures undertaken in healthcare institutions. Clinics, hospitals, and diagnostic institutes generate waste that must be properly managed and handled. Medical waste management ensures that biomedical waste is properly collected, treated, stored, and disposed of in order to protect the environment, animals, and general public. Medical waste management is defined as the collection, storage, treatment, and disposal of biomedical trash through a variety of services such as chemical treatment, autoclaving and incineration. 
 
Medical waste requires careful control and disposal before collection and handling. Controlled medical-waste disposal measures are designed to protect personnel who generate medical waste and handle the waste from the point of generation to the point of disposal. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published general guidelines for managing sharps. For certain rare diseases or conditions, healthcare facilities may require additional precautions to avoid aerosol generation during handling of blood-contaminated items.
 
Regulated pharmaceutical waste storage and transportation within a healthcare facility is often required before treatment ends. Healthcare institutions are instructed to clean frequently to prevent accumulation of medical waste. Medical scraps requiring storage should be retained in puncture-resistant, leak-proof, labeled containers that minimize or prevent odors. The storage area should be well ventilated and not exposed to insects. Each facility producing regulated medical waste should have a regulated medical waste management policy to ensure welfare and environmental protection in accordance with local guidelines.
 
One of the major factors driving the medical waste management market is the increasing enforcement of stringent environmental and safety regulations by governments across the globe. The industry is governed by different federal, state and local regulations, which have created many regulations for different types of medical waste. Local and state regulations generally govern the labeling, containment, transportation, storage, and treatment of medical waste. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, proper disposal of any drug that matches the criteria for being hazardous waste is mandatory.
 
Medical waste management method helps in the collection, storage, segregation, and safe disposal of medical waste that is harmful to people’s health. As per the (WHO) World Health Organization records, 6 billion injections are administered across the globe annually; however, not all the needles and syringes are disposed. Thus, with better medical waste management, all biomedical waste is collected, segregated and disposed of accordingly. Increasing medical waste from hospitals, testing laboratories and research centers, blood banks and collection services, and nursing homes for the elderly will drive market share through 2028.
 
The market is segmented based on service (recycling, transportation and storage, collection, treatment and disposal); type of waste (hazardous, non-hazardous); waste generator (hospitals and diagnostic laboratories, other waste generators); and treatment site  (onsite, offsite).
 
Although most hospital waste is treated as non-infectious, there is a large amount of infectious waste that must be managed decisively to avoid health and environmental hazards. Infectious waste is combined with non-infectious waste in many healthcare facilities to reduce costs and save time and is disposed of with serious health and environmental impacts. This is mainly due to lack of awareness about these hazards and this factor prevents the global medical waste management industry from achieving its full potential. Medical waste management service providers and governments are taking initiatives to create awareness for effective infectious waste management and strive to overcome this barrier in the near future.
 
In April 2022, Stericycle Inc. launched its new Safe Shield antimicrobial medical waste containers. It is a collection of high-quality, standardized containers designed specifically for storing and transporting regulated medical waste (RMW). In contrast to current containers of Stericycle, this new line offers customers better storage options, improved design, and an additional level of protection to aid in the fight against microorganism growth on RMW containers.
 
North America dominates the medical waste management industry in terms of market revenue and share and will continue to increase its dominance through 2028 due to the rising aging population as well as hard and fast regulations. Europe is expected to hold the major market share, thanks to the spread of chronic diseases, presence of major pharmaceutical companies, rising hospitalization rates, and improved focus on efficient waste management. Asia Pacific, on the other hand, is expected to exhibit the highest growth in the coming years due to increasing establishment of stringent regulations and social awareness for proper byproducts and residues disposal. The adoption of eco-friendly disposal and recycling processes is anticipated to trigger growth.

Key industry vendors include: Stericycle, Suez Environnement, Veolia Environnement S.A., Clean Harbors, Sharps Compliance Inc., REMONDIS AG & Co. KG, Waste Management Inc., Daniels Sharpsmart Inc., BioMedical Waste Solutions LLC, Republic Services Inc., EcoMed Services, BWS Incorporated, GRP & Associates, MedPro Disposal, Gamma Waste Services, GIC Medical Disposal, Triumvirate Environmental, Casella Waste Systems Inc., EPCO, and All Medical Waste Australia Pty. Ltd.