There are very strict regulations in place governing how infectious waste – for example from hospitals – must be treated. These materials have to be made safe in specialist plants and incinerated. They may not, though, be used to generate electricity. This means that despite their huge energy-producing potential, these materials are not allowed to be used as refuse-derived fuel by the energy sector. REMONDIS Medison – a healthcare waste specialist – has developed an innovative and efficient solution to this problem. They have come up with a treatment method that transforms infectious waste into a sterile and, as a result, harmless state so that it can be sent for thermal treatment. The name of this treatment system is REKOMED and it is being operated by REMONDIS Medison at the Lippe Plant.

Even if the final goal is energy recovery, the priority of this particular treatment process is to sterilise infectious waste. This facility is there to turn hazardous substances into harmless materials. And, by doing so, it is playing a key role in keeping people safe and healthy. Germs, viruses and spores are killed off completely by this sterilisation process. Importantly, everything is fully automated so that the staff do not come into contact with the material at any stage of the procedure. This is all made possible because the whole system is fully enclosed – from the moment the material is placed into the facility through to the final sterilisation stage. What’s more, no one is put at risk either if the facility has to be repaired or serviced as all the individual pieces of machinery at the plant have a self-sterilising function. Experts regularly use microbiological and physical tests to check that the plant is operating correctly and effectively.