Search Results (5)

The management of medical waste (MW) is a critical global challenge, contributing to toxic effects on humans, environmental degradation, and economic burdens. Despite advancements, gaps remain in adopting sustainable waste disposal practices, with limited bibliometric analysis in this field. The rising volume of MW, exacerbated by global health crises, strains existing systems. This study uses bibliometric analysis of 3025 publications from 1975 to 2024, employing Web of Science data with specific Boolean operators and keywords for efficient searching algorithms. Data visualization and analysis were carried out with software such as VOSviewer version 1.6.20 and Bibliometrix 5.0.0, along with custom Python 3.12.3 thesaurus files to standardize terminology. The results reveal a significant rise in publications post-2000, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, with China, India, and the US as major contributors. South Korea stands out for high citation rates. Network analysis identified collaboration patterns, while trend mapping highlighted a shift toward sustainable waste management practices. The evaluation insights revealed a clear transition from incineration-based methods toward sustainable and innovative solutions such as autoclaving, plasma pyrolysis, and advanced oxidation processes, driven by environmental concerns and regulatory frameworks. This study underscores the implications of MW and the importance of analyzing publication trends over time to understand the ongoing need for development, grounded in a legislative policy framework, which is essential for advancing sustainable practices in MW management. Full article

Automatic term extraction aims at extracting terminological units from specialized corpora to assist terminographers in developing glossaries, thesauri, and termbases. Unfortunately, traditional methods often overlook the complex relation between terminologies of different subject fields that co-occur in a single specialized corpus. This study illustrates Domain Concept Relatedness, a novel term extraction technique meant to isolate the terminology of a given subject field. We test our technique against the term extraction tool of Sketch Engine and the contrastive approach by applying them to the extraction of waste management terms from a new Italian corpus about waste management legislation. The results show that Domain Concept Relatedness effectively extracts multi-word terms belonging to a given subject field but still fails to extract single-word terms. Full article

Bio-based and biodegradable materials have the potential to replace traditional petroleum-based plastics across a range of products and contribute to a more circular economy. However, the uptake of these materials will not succeed unless consumers, manufacturers, and regulators are convinced of their efficacy. Investigating performance and safety concerns put forward by academic and non-academic communities, this paper assesses whether these concerns are being adequately addressed by current policy and regulation. In addition, measures to overcome significant concerns are developed through a series of stakeholder engagement events, informed by the Prospex-CQI-and STIR methodology. Discussions across the stakeholder engagement events have highlighted several concerns that create barriers to market up-take of bio-based and biodegradable plastic products, including the continued confusion regarding terminology and resultant communication, difficulties in navigating the plethora of documents related to safety, the appropriateness of safety documents when applied to new products, and the overall suitability and sustainability of such materials as an alternative to traditional plastics. To overcome these concerns, a series of recommendations for research, policy, and practice are made with respect to the following key areas of concern: regulation and legislative instruments, material quality and performance, market penetration and availability, waste management infrastructure, sourcing and supply chain, communication and information provision, and material health and safety. Full article

Biodegradable and compostable plastic packaging (BCPP) has the potential to reduce a global plastic waste problem. We aimed to identify influences on buying BCPP as a basis for designing strategies that enable BCPP’s environmental benefits. Using a UK-focused citizen science dataset, we thematically analysed 610 survey responses to a question exploring reasons for BCPP purchase. Themes are categorised as barriers and enablers and according to the components of the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behaviour (COM-B) model of behaviour. Key barriers concerned: psychological capability (not understanding terminology used to label packaging, not taking notice of packaging, and preferring other types of packaging and product qualities); reflective motivation (negative beliefs about BCPP’s environmental impacts and skepticism over decomposition claims), and physical opportunity (no access to appropriate waste management). Key enablers concern: reflective motivation (positive beliefs about BCPP’s environmental impact and resolve to behave pro-environmentally) and physical opportunity (access to appropriate waste management). Reducing ambiguity concerning the labels of biodegradable and compostable may reduce skepticism over environmental claims of packaging. Interventions should improve information about the source of the packaging material, how the packaging waste is processed, and how to dispose of the packaging. This will not be sufficient unless facilities for local BCPP waste collection and processing are increased. Full article

There is lack of uniform nomenclature for healthcare waste (HCW) globally, which could undermine efforts to develop and implement appropriate policies relating to healthcare waste management (HCWM) in developing countries. This study sought to understand the terminologies used to describe HCW, including their definitions, categories, classification, and how they align with those that are provided by the World Health Organization (WHO)’s global manual for HCWM from healthcare facilities. The study first identified terms from the existing literature; then, it conceptually mapped the literature, and identified gaps and areas of further inquiry. Six electronic databases—EBSCOhost, Open Access, ProQuest, PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were used to search for literature. A total of 112 studies were included in the study. Despite having various nomenclature for HCW globally that align with those provided by the WHO manual, the use of varying nomenclature could create confusion among healthcare workers in the quest of managing HCW properly, especially in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Further studies must be conducted to determine how these terminologies are interpreted and implemented in practice by healthcare workers. This will help to understand how their implementation aligns with the recommendations provided by the WHO manual. Full article