Cleaning up bio-medical waste: Peter Klaptchuk calls it Mother Nature's sanitizer. He's referring to ozone. In addition to shielding us from the sun's harmful rays, it is also ideal for sterilizing bacteria-ridden waste.

People around the world are seeking ways to deal with the increasing volume of bio-medical waste such as swabs, syringes and blades. The increase is partly due to disposable items that have become the most trusted tools in the health-care value chain. However, they also pose a serious threat of infection to handlers and waste sites.

In developing countries, where disposal resources are limited, waste is even more of a problem. Small-scale, low-temperature incinerators are often used that release toxic emissions.

Peter Klaptchuk's entire career has been spent dealing with toxic wastes of one kind or another. He began his entrepreneurial career as a teenager in the family business, Peter's Sewer Service. Expanding into a fleet of more than 50 trucks and employees, the company tackled many unique emergencies involving hazardous spill clean-ups and site decontamination.

His direct involvement in emergency spill containments and site remediation has earned him a reputation as a safety conscious employer with a healthy respect for environmental stewardship and analytical approach to current systems.

In 1999 he acquired a unique biomedical waste management technology from New Jersey and built Sanitec Canada to handle bio-medical waste.

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"There is a huge amount of labour involved in sorting the waste, and then the trucks transporting it contribute to greenhouse gases. There is also the risk that a truck could overturn and the unsterilized waste could spill."

In 2002, Klaptchuk began a research and development project to shorten the environmental loop for handling all bio-hazardous waste. He moved the disinfection process closer to the source of contamination in order to keep it out of the transportation system. With laboratory test results in hand, he got a utility patent pending to develop a production scale prototype of the "Ozonator."

The Ozonator--smaller than the parking space for two mid-size automobiles--shreds, sanitizes and compacts 350-500 pounds of waste material in a 10-minute cycle. The end result is a pile of sterile confetti-like material.

Since the shredding, decontamination and bulk compaction process is contained within this relatively limited space, the need for sorting, packaging and refrigeration is eliminated. Also eliminated is the need for a dedicated vehicle to haul the waste.

It has taken Klaptchuk four years to develop the Ozonator. Now he is ready to go to market. To help make the leap from lab to marketplace, Klaptchuk has hired Randy Johnson as the company's business manager. Johnson, founder of the Canadian Export Intelligence Group, has the expertise to take Klaptchuk's dream international.

"We've completed the testing, now we want to do a pilot project for third party verification," says Johnson. We'll complete a position paper that illustrates the real savings of the technology by showing how it can do the job better, faster and cheaper."

RELATED ARTICLE: WHO'S RESPONSE TO MANAGING HEALTH-CARE WASTE

High income countries generate up to 6 kg of infectious, toxic or radioactive waste per person per year. Most of this is contaminated swabs, bandages and disposable medical tools or body parts. About one per cent of hazardous healthcare waste is generated by "sharps"--syringes, disposable scalpels and blades.

In 2002, the results of a World Health Organization (WHO) study conducted in 22 counties showed that the proportion of health-care facilities that do not use proper waste disposal methods ranges from 18 to 64 per cent. WHO also recognizes the growing controversy over the incineration of health-care waste because of the toxic emissions produced at low temperatures.

WHO is working in collaboration with countries on researching and promoting alternatives to incineration. In the long-term, WHO aims to promote non-burn technologies for the final disposal of medical wastes.

These steps towards improvement are just a small part of WHO's response to the growing burden of health-care waste management.