When he was appointed as the director of the then Co Do District Hospital (now Thoi Lai District Hospital) in 2004, Hiep had an incinerator built to destroy medical waste. It was only a temporary solution because the fumes from burning the waste bothered local residents.
He soon discovered that the hospitalâs new incinerator wouldnât burn hot enough to destroy glass waste so he looked into buying one from overseas. And he found that an imported incinerator to suit his hospital would cost over VND500 million (US$29,231).
The problem urged Hiep to come up with a cheaper solution.
One day he put several glass drug containers into his meat grinder, and ground them into fine pieces. He then bought materials and asked local engineers to make a larger machine the same as the grinder.
He said he then mixed the finely-ground glass with cement and powdered lime and poured the mix into a paving stone mould, adding that the finished stone was very hard.
At the end of last year, after testing to see if the paving stones worked and were safe, the doctor asked his hospital to sort its waste into different categories every day, and store all the glass.
Once a month a staff member collects all the glass waste â“ around 120 liters, and grinds them finely with Hiepâs machine which takes about an hour. After sterilized, the mix is placed with cement and lime into a mould, making paving stones of 50x50x5 centimeters apiece for the hospital precinct and surrounding areas.
Hiep said the incinerator that he had considered importing would have used 30 kilowatt-hours and 220 liters of diesel oil â“ costing around VND3.3 million ($192.93) â“ to treat 1,000 liters of glass over a 10-hour period.
His VND6 million ($350.77) grinder, meanwhile, consumes some 12 kilowatt-hours costing about VND12,000 (around 70 US cents) to treat the same amount of glass waste without using diesel oil, the hospital director said.
Hiep said his treatment method not only saves money but recycles the waste and decreases pollution risks to the environment posed by burying and burning medical waste.
He added that the money saved could help Mekong Delta hospitals buy proper incinerators for the other waste.
The doctor says he is now conducting scientific research titled âSolid medical wastes (glass group) treatment machineâ in cooperation with engineer Hoang Thanh Liem to improve his invention with which he plans to enter the Can Tho City Technical Creation Contest next year.
Source: Lao Dong