Uzbekistan's Committee on Ecology has reported violations in the handling and disposal of medical waste at healthcare facilities in Tashkent, including cases where hazardous medical waste was mixed with household waste.
The violations were identified by a special commission established to implement measures aimed at improving the environmental situation in the capital. According to the committee, inspections found cases in which medical waste was disposed of together with municipal waste at standard landfills or dumped at unauthorized locations.
Since the beginning of the year, 3,239.05 cubic meters of medical waste have been removed from healthcare institutions across Tashkent. The largest volume was generated by Clinical Hospital No. 16, also known as the Republican Scientific Center for Emergency Medical Care, which accounted for 1,795.4 cubic meters. Infectious Diseases Hospital No. 3 generated 445.44 cubic meters, while the Clinic of the Research Institute of Virology accounted for another 382 cubic meters.
Waste management violations were identified at five healthcare institutions: the Republican Children's Center for Phthisiology and Rehabilitation of Musculoskeletal Diseases, the Tashkent City Branch of the Center for Dermatology, Venereology and Cosmetology, City Clinical Infectious Diseases Hospital No. 1, the Scientific and Practical Medical Center for Phthisiology and Pulmonology, and the Skin and Venereal Diseases Hospital.
The Committee on Ecology also provided information on existing medical waste recycling capacity in the capital. Since 2024, foreign company Sayar LLC has been implementing the Sayar Green medical waste recycling project with a reported investment value of $115mn. According to the committee, the project's facilities are not operating at full capacity because healthcare institutions are not transferring sufficient volumes of hazardous medical waste to the company for treatment.
Two waste disposal facilities established under the project have a combined processing capacity of 12 tons per day. However, they currently receive approximately 3 tons of medical waste daily, meaning the available equipment is operating at around 25% of its capacity. The committee also cited World Health Organization data indicating that approximately 15% of waste generated by healthcare activities is classified as hazardous. Such waste requires appropriate collection, separation, transportation, treatment, and disposal procedures due to potential infection and environmental risks.
The findings indicate that authorities are reviewing medical waste handling practices in Tashkent, including the separation of hazardous waste from household waste and its transfer to specialized treatment facilities.
