Public understanding of medical waste procedures is lacking. Moreover, the survey showed that people under age 40 had more awareness of medical waste, likely due to a generally higher level of education.
The majority of respondents were confused about the differences between medical waste, recyclable waste and ordinary garbage, and how they should be handled and disposed.
The respondents thought that medical waste management costs are ranked as follows: disposal costs, monitoring facilities construction costs, dedicated container investments and transportation costs.
In constructing a creative operational mechanism for improving waste management, it is interesting to note that 24% of respondents stated they were willing to pay the related medical waste management costs.
The majority of the respondents are considerably dissatisfied with the medical waste management in Nanjing.
Only 23% of the respondents considered medical waste management as unimportant or very unimportant when selecting hospital services. These results suggest that if the hospitals improve their medical waste management, their market credibility will be enhanced.