Why are you still worried that medical waste collection and transportation may not be fast enough? "One South, One North, One Island, One Center" has a daily disposal capacity of over 400 tons of medical institutions | garbage | capacity

In various public places and units, hospitals with high pedestrian traffic generate a large amount of household and medical waste. However, due to factors such as building layout and surrounding road traffic environment, the collection and transportation efficiency of these high-risk waste often cannot reach the ideal state, and it is still a "bottleneck" for many old medical institutions in central urban areas.

With the empowerment of technology, Shanghai is gradually overcoming these "bottlenecks", continuously improving the collection and transportation efficiency of medical waste and medical waste in medical institutions, and minimizing the impact and risks on medical institutions and the surrounding environment as much as possible.

Quick: "Portrait" accelerates vehicle turnover

Under normal circumstances, the amount of medical waste generated in a region is directly proportional to the level of medical development and disposal capacity of the region.

At present, Shanghai's medical waste disposal capacity is among the top in the country, with a layout of "one south, one north, one island, and one center" medical waste disposal facilities, with a disposal capacity of over 400 tons per day.

"Nan" is an old port solid waste comprehensive utilization base located in Pudong New Area, with a medical waste incineration and disposal capacity of 240 tons/day; "North" is a Shanghai solid waste disposal company located in Jiading District, with a disposal capacity of 122 tons per day; "Island" is a permanent solid waste disposal and renovation project on Chongming Island, with a disposal capacity of 30 tons per day; The center is a self disposal facility for medical waste built in conjunction with the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, with a disposal capacity of 12 tons per day.

The Jiefang Daily Shangguan News reporter learned that under normal circumstances, the daily average amount of medical waste generated in Shanghai remains stable at 200 to 300 tons. According to the current disposal capacity in Shanghai, it is completely possible to achieve daily production.

But this is just a simple comparison between the source generated quantity and the end disposal capacity, without considering whether the intermediate collection and transportation process is smooth and efficient.

Xue Hao, General Manager of Shanghai Solid Waste Disposal Co., Ltd., stated at the 3rd Solid Waste Disposal and Resource Utilization Summit held today that collection and transportation is the most promising link in the current closed-loop of medical waste disposal in Shanghai.

Xue Hao stated that the uneven distribution of medical institutions as the source of medical waste generation, as well as the large peak valley difference in the amount of medical waste generated, are the two major problems currently hindering the improvement of medical waste collection and transportation efficiency.

At present, there are over 6000 medical institutions in the city, with a dense distribution in the central urban area and scattered in the suburbs. Especially in the face of the busy traffic environment in the central urban area, it is difficult to operate the medical waste collection and transportation process efficiently.

The amount of medical waste generated varies greatly among different time periods and medical institutions. A set of data from Shanghai Environment Group shows that the amount of medical waste generated by medical institutions in Shanghai recently differs by about 4.5 times from the epidemic period, while the amount of medical waste generated on weekdays and weekends this year differs by about 40%.

In addition, there is a significant difference in the amount of medical waste generated by medical institutions of different scales. The daily amount of medical waste generated by tertiary hospitals is often dozens or even hundreds of times that of small medical institutions. The instability of these generated quantities can interfere with the deployment of troops by the receiving units, leading to consequences such as wasted transportation capacity and low collection efficiency.

Xue Hao revealed that the Shanghai medical waste collection and transportation end has started to improve collection efficiency by "profiling" the sources of medical waste, and the key basis for "profiling" is the traceable chips installed in all medical waste containers and the increasingly popular handheld PDA scanning devices in the sources.

By collecting and analyzing the trajectory and usage data of medical waste containers, as well as logistics information collected by scanning equipment, a relatively accurate prediction model can be established to more accurately grasp the collection and transportation needs of relevant units during the corresponding time period.

"With the 'portrait', we have a clear understanding of which specifications of vehicles and medical waste bins to send out, and it can greatly enhance the management of transportation capacity, allowing each vehicle to increase the daily average number of trips when fully loaded. Xue Hao provided a set of data to reporters. Compared with 2020, the average full load rate of Shanghai Environmental Group's medical waste collection vehicles has increased from 85.5% to 98.6%, and the per capita collection volume of collection personnel has increased from 2.08 tons/day to 2.26 tons/day. After improving efficiency, without significantly increasing transportation capacity, the coverage of medical institutions has increased from over 5300 to nearly 6400.".

Slow: The pipeline system is calm and unhurried

Improving the efficiency of collection and transportation is an effective way to reduce the waiting time for medical waste at the source of production. However, at the World Environment Expo Industrial Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Exhibition held in Shanghai, some exhibitors have taken a different approach by not pursuing vehicle collection and transportation efficiency, but also reducing the impact and risk of medical waste on medical institutions and the surrounding environment.

At the Dreyfus Encore booth, the garbage pipeline well, which once represented outdated disposal habits, is now returning in a new form thanks to technological empowerment. The household waste sucked into the vacuum pipeline "flies" to the closed collection station in a few seconds, until the container is full and a signal is issued before it is transported away by professional vehicles.

"The traditional frequency of sanitation collection and transportation operations is generally one to two times a day, but the use of intelligent urban garbage power collection and classification systems can be extended to two to three days for collection and transportation, which is more leisurely." Li Shuai, the sales manager of Delifu, said that the specific length of extension depends on the production of domestic waste at the source and the size of the closed collection station.

According to the company's introduction, this system has landed over 1100 projects worldwide, and multiple projects have been put into operation or are being promoted in China, including the Guangdong Shenzhen International Biotech Valley Ba Guang Core Launch Zone, Hebei Langfang New Chaoyang Square, Ningxia Yinchuan Binhe New Area Jingcheng Town, as well as medical institutions such as Fudan University Affiliated Zhongshan Hospital and Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital in Shanghai.

"Efficient disposal of household waste and medical waste by medical institutions is a necessity, but the 'last mile' between the source and the collection port is the 'pain point' that affects efficiency." Li Shuai said that many traditional medical institutions are located in multi story buildings, and the flow of people and logistics heavily rely on vertical spaces such as elevators. Under the principle of prioritizing the passage of doctors, patients, and medical supplies, the domestic waste generated in the horizontal space is generally collected and first concentrated and stacked at the designated temporary storage point on the floor, and then manually pushed into the elevator during leisure time to be transported to the unified collection point on the ground of the medical institution.

The efficiency of this "last mile" cannot be improved, and even if the collection capacity of the connected vehicles is enhanced, the overall improvement in collection efficiency will not be significant.

In the eyes of industry insiders, pipeline collection technology has long existed and is very mature in the field of household waste collection and transportation. It is very convenient to dispose of garbage and the collection of garbage is no longer "leaking", which are the two biggest advantages of this technology. However, there are still many bottlenecks in the current stage of large-scale promotion in Shanghai.

It is revealed that both medical institutions in Shanghai have applied this technology in their expansion projects, indicating that the implementation of this technology requires high spatial requirements.

Li Shuai pointed out that many early architectural design plans did not consider pipeline collection technology, and with the rapid development of cities, underground spaces have long been filled with complex and intricate pipelines, which have hindered the implementation of intelligent urban garbage power collection and classification systems. "Relatively speaking, the 'Five New Cities' have better conditions for implementation, and medical institutions, commercial complexes, large communities, parks and green spaces can all introduce such concepts in the design and planning stage."

The high initial investment cost is another major threshold for implementation. The reporter learned that the intelligent city garbage power collection and classification system generally needs to be put into operation for 6 to 8 years before it can have cost advantages compared to traditional garbage collection and transportation models. "The 'capital recovery' cycle has been significantly shortened compared to when it was first introduced to China, but this threshold is still too high for most cities, and many people still do not understand or trust it. They need to have enough foresight and insight." Li Shuai said.