With the increasing generation of medical waste worldwide, managing medical waste has become crucial, given its potential environmental and public health risks. Previously in the Republic of Korea, medical waste was often mixed with municipal waste and disposed of in residential landfills or unsuitable treatment facilities (e.g., improperly managed incinerators). Environmental regulators and waste producers have made extensive efforts in recent years to improve waste management at healthcare facilities. This study presents an overview of the status of medical waste management in Korea and discusses information on the generation, composition, separation, transportation, and treatment of medical waste. Incineration was confirmed to be the most preferred treatment method for medical waste and was the only one used until late 2005. Large-scale medical waste incinerators are used for treating medical waste from most medical facilities in Korea; however, with increasing regulations on toxic air emissions (e.g., dioxins and furans), air emission standards are being tightened for all existing small-scale incineration facilities without air pollution control. Since medical waste usually contains various plastic materials such as polyvinyl chloride, these incinerators are highly likely to emit toxic air pollutants if improperly operated and managed. Waste minimization and recycling, control of toxic air emissions from medical waste incinerators, and alternative treatment methods to incineration are seen as major challenges. Incineration capacity cannot be expanded as quickly as the rising quantities of medical waste in Korea; thus, there is a growing need to reconsider the overall management system. Accordingly, we examined various medical waste treatment policies and methods that are being implemented in other countries, in addition to the main strategy of waste management. To determine preferable directions for the improvement of the medical waste management system, we investigated and compared the status of domestic and foreign waste management and proposed directions for improvement, focusing on several issues related to the current medical waste management system in Korea.

The increasing adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) has highlighted the need for sustainable lithium-ion battery (LIB) management. This study presents a material flow analysis (MFA) of EV LIBs in the Republic of Korea (RoK), using both a mass-based MFA and a substance flow analysis (SFA). The analysis defines 33 systems and 170 flows across the manufacturing, consumption, discharge and collection, and treatment stages, based on national statistics and data from 11 commercial facilities. In 2022, about 72,446 t of EV LIBs entered the consumption stage through new vehicle sales and battery replacements. However, domestic recovery was limited, as approximately 76.5% of used EVs were exported, reducing the volume of batteries available for recycling. The SFA, focusing on nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), manganese (Mn), and lithium (Li), showed recovery rates of 69% for Ni, 80% for Co, 1% for Mn, and 80% for Li. Mn was not recovered because its low market price made the recovery process economically impractical. Additional losses occurred from the incineration of separators containing black mass and lithium discharged through wastewater. These findings offer data-driven insights to improve recovery efficiency, guide policy, and enhance the circularity of EV LIB management in the RoK.

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, 24,289 tons of infectious waste was generated in 2021 in Korea, a 320% increase compared to that generated in 2020 (5788 tons). The disposal of other healthcare waste has been delayed because COVID-19 infectious waste must be disposed of first, leading to long-term concerns related to the lack of healthcare waste disposal capacity. To solve this problem, this study investigated healthcare waste classification systems in Korea and overseas. We analyzed the current state of healthcare waste in Korea and compared the treatment methods and healthcare waste treatment systems by country. The results showed that Korea has a strict healthcare waste management system compared to other countries, which relies on dedicated incinerators and transport. It is difficult to expand incinerators exclusively for healthcare waste due to site selection issues because they incinerate infectious waste. Therefore, to solve the healthcare waste disposal problem, Korea should improve its management system to reduce treatment amounts. This study suggests that general healthcare waste that is considered less infectious should be excluded from healthcare waste-exclusive treatment and that sterilization/grinding as an intermediate treatment method should be allowed.

An analysis method for phenolic compounds in waste was developed, and its contents and leaching concentrations were measured to investigate the concentration and distribution of phenolic compounds in waste in South Korea. The EPA 8041 method was applied; thirteen phenolic compounds were derivatized and analyzed simultaneously using pentafluorobenzylbromide (PFBBr). Leaching pretreatment was performed using Korea’s leaching test method. For content pretreatment, extraction and derivatization were performed by applying EPA 3550C. An analysis was conducted using GC-MS. Fifty samples were collected from industrial waste in Korea, and six waste types (wastewater sludge, organic sludge, process sludge, waste foundry sand, waste soil, and waste sand) were selected for research. In the analysis results, seven phenolic compounds (2-Chlorophenol, 4-Chloro-3-methylphenol, 2,4-Dichlorophenol, 2,6-Dichlorophenol, 2,4,5-Trichlorophenol, 2,4,6-Trichlorophenol, and 2,3,4,6- Trichlorophenol) were not detected in the samples. When leachate was analyzed, organic sludge exhibited the highest total phenolic compound content of 18.8 mg/L, with nonylphenols (NPs, 14.4 mg/L) and p-Cresol (0.4 mg/L) showing the highest concentrations. In the content analysis results, the highest total phenolic compound content of 119.3 mg/kg was detected from wastewater sludge with bisphenol A (43.8 mg/kg), phenol (27.8 mg/kg), pentachlorophenol (18.1 mg/kg), o-Cresol (2.8 mg/kg), and m-Cresol (0.5 mg/kg) exhibiting the highest concentrations. When the analysis results were compared with domestic and overseas recycling criteria, the leachate criterion (1 mg/L) was exceeded by 17 samples out of 50, whereas the content criterion (4 mg/kg) was exceeded by 26 samples. This indicates that it is necessary to prepare countermeasures regarding emission source management.