Disposal of Biomedical Waste in Thailand

The Municipality of Ban Maet (750 civilians) is located in the Eastern part of Thailand and it is currently developing an own waste management system. The mayor regulary informs the people about correct waste treatments. Unfortunately, it is still common to burn household waste in open fires. The remainings are washed into the ground water as well as they get eaten by animals which may spread diseases. Furthermore, the local hospital does not have any hardware for disposing infectious waste. This waste is transported regularly to Ubon Ratchathani to be burned there. Mr Kresimir Delinic set up the connection between local officers and us. 

Project History
After exchanging contact details between the local officers of Ban Maet and Buntharik (5,000 civilians, ten kilometres away from each other) and us, the project was initiated in early 2018. Our team started to plan the technical, the financial and the time details. 

We decided for the incinerator model DeMontfort Mark 9 which is built out of two burning chambers with two surrounding walls each. The second burning chamber provides space for the burning gases to burn after which results in low smoke gas emissions. The system is installed on a 6 x 4 m foundation and provides a 5 m high chimney. A lockable waste chamber is designed for safely storageing waste. A corrugated roof provides protection against rain and sun light. The whole system is based on the low-budget-principal: Easy but firm and reliable technology with low usage costs. 

About 5,300 € of the total project costs of 6,800 € were spent for materials, salaries, and logistics in Thailand. The remaining costs did cover the flights of the team members, the CO2 compensation as well as tools and vaccination costs. The Municipality of Ban Maet took over 2250 €. The other two thirds of the total project costs were paid by collected donations. 

This project was realized by Lara and Max from February 24 to March 21, 2019. The planned goals were delivered successfully. 

Outlook
The incinerator system is now the last stage of the waste management system of Ban Maet and its hospital (Reduce – Recycle – Remove). The Municipality of Ban Maet will equip the area around the incinerator site with a compost system as well as a water-proof dump site for leftover ashes. With our presentations at several schools and hospitals about waste management, we (Lara and Max) did set up a network of local persons in charge. These stakeholder connections will be used for future cooperations. 

Thank you for your support 😊