4.5. Waste treatment and disposal
The common practices for treatment and disposal of hazardous
healthcare waste in Bahrain are shown in Fig. 4. About 40% of the
surveyed facilities disposed off their hazardous wastes using controlled
incinerator. There is one designated incinerator in the country
for treating hazardous healthcare waste. This incinerator has
been operating since 2002. The incinerator is located near industrial
area and operated by a private company. The company operates
two-chamber incinerator with a capacity of 500 kg/h. The
bottom ash generated from the primary chamber is disposed at
municipal landfill site. However, the fly ash resulted from the secondary
chamber is disposed off at industrial hazardous landfill site.
Dry scrubbing filtration system was installed to treat generated
gases from the incineration process. The incinerator stack emissions
are monitored once every six months for many parameters,
including dioxin, furan, particulate matter, heavy metals, and other
emissions. The sampling and testing of these emissions are conducted
by government approved third-party laboratory. The emission
results are reported to the local regulatory on biyearly basis.