"The process of disposal waste using incinerators is the only way to control infections, diseases, and pollutants."

In the first week of August 2021, Syria Civil Defense teams installed a special incinerator for medical waste in the north west of Syria. The process of collecting medical wastes from hospitals and health centers began to reduce environmental pollution and the danger of these wastes to public health amid the decline of the health system after the regime and Russia devastated a large number of medical facilities.

In Alhabat, north of Idlib, an incinerator of global specifications and standards was installed. It is intended to serve all hospitals and health care facilities in northern Syria. The objective is to eliminate the medical waste without having to worry about the environmental consequences of burning and transporting operations, and to make the burning deliverables smaller than the waste quantity, therefore, the damage will be minimized in this instance.

Sorting and collecting method

The project involves distributing containers to a large number of health centers and hospitals affiliated to Idlib and Aleppo Health Directorates, to facilitate waste classification process according to the international system, storage, and disposal of each type of waste separately and safely.

To meet the material requirements for the classification process, 500 containers of different sizes and colors were distributed to hospitals, primary care centers, and civil defense centers. Medical waste is collected from health centers and hospitals daily and transferred to the medical waste incinerator in Alhabat village to be destroyed according to health standards and conditions.

Mechanism of Action

The disposal process in the incinerator depends on three incineration cycles. The first is inside the main combustion chamber at a temperature of 800-1000 degrees Celsius, where solid waste and metal waste are burnt. The gases generated from the main combustion chamber are re-burned in the secondary combustion chamber at a temperature of 850-1200 degrees Celsius. finally filtering gases to eliminate hazardous particles.

The importance of the project

The process of disposal waste using incinerators is the only way to control infections, diseases and pollutants, in addition to stopping the use of small and open incinerators and throwing hazardous and infectious medical waste in landfills or eliminating them illegally.

According to a study we conducted, there was a massive need to activate the medical waste incineration according to international standards. It will help in minimizing ​​lands used for burying and disposal of waste without affecting the environment through the use of the latest technologies.The bombing of hospitals by regime forces and Russia weakened and devastated the health system, which had negative impacts on civilians.

There is an urgent need to expand medical facilities and enhance their capacity, as well as disposing of medical waste in a safe manner that does not endanger the environment, and the most important thing is to protect civilians. The Syrian Civil Defense has implemented many projects that aim to help civilians, including the filling oxygen factory, the masks factory, the isolation suits, and the face shield. All of these projects aim to improve the quality of healthcare in all of northwest Syria.