4.2. Segregation and collection
In light of Act 380, medical waste has been divided into five categories: sharp waste, infectious waste, tissues waste, chemical waste and medicine waste. The medical waste should be segregated for collection by using colored bags and containers (plastic, metal or paper) as stated in the current legislation. This survey showed that 73% of the hospitals use segregated collection for all medical waste, while 27% of the hospitals have not yet implemented segregated collection for all medical waste. The segregation practices have been applied as follows: infectious waste was collected in yellow bags; municipal waste was collected in black bags; sharps were collected in plastic containers; and cyto toxic /
cyto static drugs were collected in their original packaging. The segregation practices of the selected hospitals in Nanjing were similar to the medical waste management practices reported in the literature (Tsakona et al., 2007). In 80% of the hospitals, trained personnel took charge of the collection activity, while in 20% of the hospitals they did not. From these observations, some problematic practices were identified: