Overall, the disposal of Lebanese dental clinic healthcare waste in the municipal waste is not acceptable.
Good management of healthcare waste implies minimisation, segregation, reuse and recycling. Minimisation involves not only reducing the use of hazardous material but also removing nonhazardous waste from the same container (segregation).
For instance sharps, which were segregated by only 28% of the surveyed dental offices, must be placed in dedicated containers which should be rigid and puncture resistant.Infectious waste or contaminated material, such as swabs or glovesshould not be discarded in the municipal waste as seems to bethe case in general, but in adequate containers properly identified,labelled with the biohazard symbol, and transported in a mannerthat prevents their release