CAY HILL, Sint Maarten – St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) recently installed a Micro-Grinder, a medical waste processer, on its premises in order to safely treat its medical waste.
The Micro-Grinder, a SterilWave 250, can process up to 50 kg of medical waste per hour and turns medical waste into sterile (non-infectious) municipal waste. The medical waste treatment process entails first grinding the medical waste to small particles after which the small particles are further processed via Microwave treatment and heated up to 110 degrees Celsius at which point all waste becomes sterile. The benefit of this technology is that the medical waste becomes sterile, dry and stable for easy further logistics. The medical waste is also greatly reduced in volume (by 80%) and weight (by 20%) and there are zero polluting emissions for the environment when operating the Micro-Grinder.
SMMC’s Head of Maintenance & Facilities, Michael Sargeant, lauded the arrival and installation of the Micro-Grinder and stated: “Here at SMMC, we constantly are looking for ways to increase efficiency in our operations. In the absence of a functioning incinerator at the landfill, SMMC had to make use of third parties for incineration of certain (non-bodily materials) medical waste. Not only was this very costly, it is also not a logistically viable solution. SMMC still makes use of crematoria for the proper disposal of bodily materials. However, with the installation of a Micro-Grinder at SMMC, we can safely and swiftly process the bulk of our medical waste, which are non-bodily materials, on site which reduces the risk of contamination and reduce its volume while doing so. A win-win-win situation in our view”.
A technician from the SterilWave Micro-Grinder’s manufacturer, Bertin Medical Waste, recently concluded a week long installation and validation of the equipment. An intense training was also provided for SMMC’s technical team and operators.
The Sterilwave Micro-Grinder is an on-site medical waste processing solution which reduces the risk of contamination in comparison with incineration and landfills. Sterilwave has been registered and approved by health & environmental ministries in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and America. The uniqueness of Sterilwave is linked to its innovative microwave technology and high level of treatment respecting both the environment and security processes.
