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Seggify

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Smart bin for medical waste segregation

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Top project in sustainability

Seggify

A garbage disposal point which splits medical recyclable waste into different categories reducing human intervention by segregation at source.

Exploring the problem area

A visit to a waste management facility was conducted along with interactions with staff and workers at all levels in order to further understand the problems faced at the aggregation end of the waste cycle.

The waste cycle from source to soil was mapped in detail in order to understand problems and potential areas of intervention to solve them.

Process flow mapping

A visit to a waste management facility was conducted along with interactions with staff and workers at all levels in order to further understand the problems faced at the aggregation end of the waste cycle.

The waste cycle from source to soil was mapped in detail in order to understand problems and potential areas of intervention to solve them.

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Identified problems

Visiting the waste plant shed light on the areas where manual intervention and segregation were needed. In the case of medical waste having manual intervention is highly undesirable since injuries during segregation and general exposure to medical waste can result in severe medical conditions like (AIDS), Hepatitis B & C, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), tetanus, psychosocial trauma. Sepsis from injuries during segregation has been the leading cause of death among waste workers.

"Workers often have to intervene and segregate the glass from plastic. We notify the PCB(Pollution control board) if a hospital defaults repeatedly"

- Manager of Biowaste disposal unit

"It would be helpful to segregate since the waste which comes out of the autoclave sometimes can have a foul odour which is only further increased with more with heat"

- Supervisor of Biowaste disposal unit

"It would be helpful to have a solution where we don't really have to think too much before disposing off waste, could be helpful both during normal clinical actives as well"

-Dr. Ravi Nayar

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Interactions with these workers let us know that failure to segregate is an issue which affects the destination as well as the source. The source(hospital) faces compliance issues and at the destination there is the issue with segregation.
 

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Key opinion leaders

KS Murthy

Head of the Bamboo and sustainability society

"Segregation at source is very important in hospitals and in all other categories as well."
 

Neelchal Agrawal

Deputy Project Head at Re Sustainability

"Any solution which can reduce manual intervention at any point in the waste disposal cycle is very welcome since ideally we wouldn't want people interacting with waste at all"

Lisa Driver

Director, Environment, Climate Change and Health at WHO

“Significant change at all levels, from the global to the hospital floor, in how we manage the health care waste stream is a basic requirement of climate-smart health care systems, which many countries committed to at the recent UN Climate Change Conference, and, of course, a healthy recovery from COVID-19 and preparedness for other health emergencies in the future.”

Narrowing down problems

Problem
Statement

To design a means to reduce human intervention in the segregation of plastic and glass biomedical waste at the disposal site

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Evaluation of requiremets via survey

A list of needs/ requirements was identified from interviews, interaction and discussion. To further dive deeper and understand which issues/ concerns were the most pressing, we went back to the waste disposal staff and had them evalueate on a scale of 1-10 which requirements they thought were the most pressing and needed focussed solving

List of requirements

  • Reduce mental and physical effort needed in segregation

  • Segregate different types of plastic.

  • Drain glass bottle, plastic bottle waste

  • Ensure no cannisters in the Incinerable waste

  • Ensure proper segregation of recyclable waste (glass & plastic)

  • Presence of awareness about the health hazards

  • Reduction of errors in segregation at source

  • Environmentally conscious disposal and processing of waste

  • Reduction of human intervention.

Focussed list of requirements
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  • Reduce mental and physical effort needed in segregation

  • Ensure proper segregation of recyclable waste.

  • Reduction of errors in segregation at source

  • Reduction of human intervention in segregation.

Brainstorming

Concepts

Smart bin which uses an array of sensors which are complimentary to eachother and can distinguish the type of waste and segregates it into differnt types of waste.

Pros:

  • Reduces effort on the part of the doctor

  • No mixing of waste at any stage reducing complexity

Con:

  • Could be costly since several bins may be needed

  • Sensors add to the complexity of the solution

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Simple mechanism which flips  to the appropriate side

Has a staging area for sensing before disposal into respective categories

No mechanism for mixed waste disposal

Concept 2

Concept 1

Concept 3

Segregation at the source in the truck while it is parked. All the recyclable waste is crushed. Glass particles are sieved out and the plastic is put into its respective bin.

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Pros:

  • Simplicity

  • Empties liquids making transport efficient

  • Energy efficient since it utilizes vehicular vibrations

  • Overall cost and maintainable could be lower through consolidation

Cons:

  • Can not process waste with both glass and plastic components

  • Glass could get embedded in the plastic and create new issues

Final concept selection

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The door-based approach was selected on its simplicity, cost and reliability. The concepts were scored on these critical factors and the final selection was made based on these factors.

Different case scenarios were considered and sensors were selected to be complementary for example capacitive sensors are good at detecting glass but give false results with a plastic container filled with water/polar liquids, however, UV scatter was found to be good at detecting plastic from glass. A combination of UV, capacitive and IR sensors was used to differentiate the different types of trash and they were slotted accordingly via a servo mechanism

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Prototype Images

Business model canvas

1st Place in sustainability
6th Place overall

Smart X Health Hackathon 2022

Awards

References

  1. Needle Incinerator, Incinerator Machine, General Waste Incinerator, Waste Incinerator, इन्सिनेरेटर in Gotri , Vadodara , Gujarat Energy Training And Research Institute | ID: 1819457448 (indiamart.com)

  2. Portable Incinerator | Smart Ash Commercial Incinerator (absorbentsonline.com)

  3. https://www.aiims.edu/images/pdf/Departments_Centers/BiomedicalWaste/salient%20features.pdf

  4. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844021004187

  5. https://www.thestatesman.com/environment/1503103314-1503103314.html

  6. https://www.bioenergyconsult.com/challenges-in-hazardous-medical-waste-management/

  7. https://www.nswai.org/docs/Management%20of%20Biomedical%20Waste%20in%20India%20and%20Other%20Countries.pdf

  8. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311068691_Biomedical_Waste_Management_Issues_and_Concerns_-_A_Ward_level_Study_of_Bangalore_City

  9. CPCB | Central Pollution Control Board

  10. Biomedical waste management in India: Critical appraisal - PMC (nih.gov)

  11. https://www.who.int/news/item/01-02-2022-tonnes-of-covid-19-health-care-waste-expose-urgent-need-to-improve-waste-management-systems

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