Background – Currently, medical waste from hospitals and doctors‘ offices is mixed with other types of waste and disposed in huge dumpsites located in the outskirts of cities. Poor people sort through these dumps for anything of value. They often infect themselves with a variety of diseases as they come in contact with  infected syringes, needles, or bandages. The waste pickers are the most vulnerable group who are put at risk through the unsanitary disposal of medical waste, but they are not the only ones. Additionally, hospital employees and staff are insufficiently protected. The infectious materials can cause numerous potentially fatal diseases that can threaten the very survival of poor families.

Project – Swisscontact assists Peruvian health care facilities and authorities in developing safe methods to dispose of harmful medical waste. The intervention builds on lessons learned by Swisscontact from a similar, successful project in Bolivia. Today, privately-operated training teams in Bolivia train hospital staff and management, doctors‘ offices, and waste management firms on how to professionally and safely dispose of infectious waste materials. The safe disposal of materials from the place they were used to their final resting site is also a management challenge: new processes and technical devices such as hermitically-sealed containers and vehicles must be introduced. Additionally, staff training is crucially important. The intervention helped raise the awareness of the potentially extremely harmful impact of medical waste. In the cities of Arequipa, Cuzco, Juliaca, and Puno hospitals set up committees that are responsible for training and building awareness. This intervention model could be easily applied to medical facilities across Peru. The new system helps make the work in the health sector and at the landfills safer. It also creates new jobs in waste management. This project reflects both the growing importance of waste management and the growing need to address environmental issues in Latin America.