Spatiotemporal heterogeneity in medical waste generation and its related factors

There are significant regional imbalances in the management and treatment of medical waste in China, which can hinder the effective management of medical waste during public health emergencies. Aiming to estimate the amount of medical waste generation in 31 Chinese provinces between 2010 and 2021, this study compares provinces and identifies the key factors influencing medical waste generation. We find significant spatial differences in the amount of medical waste generation, and these differences continue to increase. Comprehensive hospitals are the main sources of medical waste generation; schemes involving the self-disposal of medical waste by comprehensive hospitals can be considered in the future. Population size is the main factor driving medical waste generation. We suggest that in densely populated and economically developed cities, mobile medical waste treatment equipment can be used to safely dispose of medical waste in a collaborative way between regions and improve the resilience of medical waste management and disposal systems. Meanwhile, increases in the number of hospital beds per 1000 persons in healthcare facilities have significantly increased medical waste generation. There is a widespread phenomenon of “idle beds” in grassroots medical and health institutions. We recommend further implementing the tiered diagnosis and treatment policies in the future.