The amount of medical waste is anticipated to increase significantly with population growth. Ineffective medical waste management has resulted in adverse impacts on environmental and human health. Therefore, this study aimed to develop the current medical waste management strategy in Istanbul. GaBi Education version 7.3 was used to conduct a life cycle assessment (LCA) to compare the current medical waste management system (baseline scenario) with alternative scenarios including different proportions of waste disposal methods from an environmental perspective. Global warming, acidification, eutrophication, ozone layer depletion, freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity, and human toxicity were selected as the environmental impact categories found in CML 2001 within GaBi software. Scenarios with a higher proportion of incineration had more negative environmental impact, whereas the scenario incorporating waste segregation/minimization contributed to reducing the environmental impact. Therefore, Scenario 4 (waste segregation at the generation points/waste minimization + incineration + steam sterilization + landfill) presented the best environmental performance with the lowest total environmental impact value of 14.21% among all scenarios and was recommended as the most sustainable alternative for medical waste management in İstanbul.

Due to its high oil content, the discharge of bilge water from ships is one of the most important pollutants in marine ecosystem. In this research, we investigated the treatment of bilge water for Haydarpasa Waste Collection Plant by Fenton oxidation followed by granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorption. We applied the following optimum operational conditions for Fenton oxidation: [Fe²⁺]: 6 mM; [H₂O₂]: 30 mM; and the ratio of [Fe²⁺]/[H₂O₂]: 1/5. Adsorption was performed in the effluent sample of Fenton oxidation. The effects of different adsorption periods, adsorbent concentrations, temperature, and pH were examined. Additionally, Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models were applied. We obtained the following optimum operational conditions: 24 h, 2 g of GAC L⁻¹, 20 °C, and pH = 6. We observed an 89.5 ± 1.9% of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) removal efficiency under these conditions. Data generated from the experiments fit both isotherm models well, though we preferred the Langmuir isotherm model to the Freundlich isotherm model because the former’s regression coefficient (0.90) was larger than that reported for the Freundlich isotherm model (0.78). The potential to treat bilge water by Fenton oxidation followed by granular activated carbon is promising for the Haydarpasa Waste Collection Plant.