Used syringes, surgical waste, expired pharmaceuticals... The annual output of such pathogen-carrying medical waste in China exceeds 1.5 million tons. As the "last line of defense" for public health and ecological security, China’s medical waste treatment system has achieved leapfrog development in recent years, yet challenges such as regional imbalances and technological upgrading remain to be addressed. The latest industry data and policy developments outline the real current landscape of medical waste treatment in China.  

I. Overall Progress: Behind the 98% Harmless Disposal Rate  

China has built a full-process closed-loop management system for medical waste treatment. According to the *2023 Annual Report on the Prevention and Control of Solid Waste Pollution in Large and Medium-Sized Cities Nationwide* released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the national medical waste output reached 1.568 million tons in 2023, an increase of 5.7% year-on-year, among which 98.3% was subject to centralized harmless disposal. This proportion represents a 6.2-percentage-point increase compared with 2019, demonstrating the effectiveness of the implementation of regulations such as the *Regulations on the Management of Medical Waste*.  

Facility construction and disposal capacity have expanded simultaneously. As of June 2024, 487 centralized medical waste disposal facilities have been completed nationwide, with a total designed disposal capacity of 2.86 million tons per year—an increase of 41.2% compared with 2020—basically covering all prefecture-level and above cities. Developed regions such as the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta have achieved "daily generation disposed of on the same day" and "48-hour transportation response," completely reversing the previous situation of high backlog risks.  

Digital supervision has become a key support. Zhejiang Province has integrated 12,000 medical institutions and 37 disposal enterprises into real-time monitoring through its "Zheli Ban Hazardous Waste" Platform, automatically intercepting 187 abnormal transportation cases in the first half of 2024. In Jiangsu Province, the utilization rate of intelligent waybills in second-class and above hospitals has reached 99.6%, driving a 73% decrease in illegal dumping cases. This "full-process traceable" model has gradually been promoted nationwide.  

II. Regional Landscape: From "Leading Role of Coastal Regions" to "Tackling Weak Links"  

Currently, medical waste disposal shows distinct regional differentiation characteristics. The three major urban agglomerations in eastern China (the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region) host 43% of the country’s disposal facilities, with a total disposal capacity of 1.14 million tons per year. The disposal scale of individual facilities here generally exceeds 30 tons per day, mainly relying on high-temperature incineration (accounting for 68%), and is equipped with complete environmental protection facilities such as exhaust gas treatment systems.  

Central and western regions are accelerating their catch-up. The state has invested 3.87 billion yuan through the "Medical Waste Disposal Capacity Weak Link Improvement Project" to support the construction of 132 new facilities, raising the disposal rate of remote provinces such as Tibet and Qinghai from less than 80% to over 95%. However, the total disposal capacity of the five southwestern provinces only accounts for 14.7% of the national total, which is highly mismatched with their population size. Moreover, these regions mostly use small and medium-sized steam sterilization equipment with a capacity of 5-15 tons per day, resulting in weak risk resistance.  

The most prominent weak link lies at the grassroots level. Approximately 12% of county-level administrative regions still have no disposal facilities. In some western counties, the transportation distance to prefecture-level cities exceeds 1,000 kilometers, leading to medical waste being stored for up to half a month—far exceeding the national standard of "no more than 48 hours." For waste from remote township health centers, due to small quantities and scattered distribution, there are even gaps in collection coverage.  

III. Technology and Policies: Exploration Between Standardization and Innovation  

Currently, the main treatment technologies are high-temperature incineration (68%) and high-temperature steam sterilization (22%), while chemical disinfection and microwave disinfection account for less than 10%. Although incineration can completely inactivate pathogens, it consumes high energy and is prone to generating dioxins. Steam sterilization, on the other hand, is more suitable for low-to-medium risk waste and facilitates subsequent resource utilization.  

The new regulations released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in 2025 are driving the optimization of the system. For remote areas, it proposes a "small-box into large-box" collection model and pilots of mobile disposal equipment; in key regions, it promotes the construction of "co-construction and shared-use" disposal facilities and simplifies the approval process for cross-provincial transportation. Beijing’s "Smart Supervision Platform" and Shanghai’s intelligent sorting robots have become typical cases of technological upgrading.  

Resource utilization has begun to make breakthroughs. Jiangsu and Shandong provinces have piloted a "standardized recycling system for recyclable infusion bottles." Through collaboration among three departments—health, ecology and environment, and market supervision—the compliant recycling rate has reached 92%. This model is expected to solve the problem of resource waste where 95% of recyclable plastics in medical waste are "simply incinerated."  

IV. Future Direction: Consolidating a "Dual-Purpose (Peacetime and Emergency)" Safety Network  

Facing the remaining challenges, a number of plans have clarified the path forward. By 2025, the national disposal capacity will be increased to 35,000 tons per day, achieving full coverage of county-level and above cities; 112 old facilities will complete upgrading and renovation, adding 480,000 tons of annual disposal capacity. The construction of the emergency system will advance in parallel: it is planned to deploy 35 regional emergency disposal bases, and 89 emergency reserve warehouses have been completed so far, with a total storage capacity of 120,000 tons.  

The "local disposal pilot" proposed by Deng Rongling, Member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), has attracted attention. This "systematic management + distributed disposal" model can solve the transportation problems at the grassroots level, reduce carbon emissions, and promote resource recycling. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has also explicitly supported medical institutions in piloting the construction of small-scale in-house disposal facilities, providing on-site solutions for remote areas.  

Supervision efforts will continue to be intensified. In 2023, the "Qingfei 2023" Special Law Enforcement Campaign investigated and handled 1,247 illegal cases, imposing fines totaling 136 million yuan. Over the next five years, information-based supervision of hazardous waste will achieve nationwide coverage, and the proportion of medical waste disposed of by landfilling must be controlled within 10%.  

Every upgrade in medical waste treatment—from intelligent disposal in cities to collection networks in rural areas—is a crucial guarantee for public health security. With technological innovation and policy improvement, the construction of this "last-line defense" is steadily advancing from meeting basic needs ("having or not having") to pursuing higher quality ("being good or not") and greater efficiency ("being economical or not").