Applications of Bioremediation in Biomedical Waste Management: Current and Future Prospects

Biomedical waste management is an integral part of health care as being the mainstay of hospital cleanliness, hygiene, and maintenance activities. Medical care is crucial for human health but mismanagement of biomedical waste harms the flora and fauna of ecosystem on earth, and badly influences the human health. Due to their stability, biomedical wastes are not eliminated by the solid or sewage treatment plants, and get bioaccumulated in environment, and eventually get to population through various means. They are harmful due to their potential carcinogenicity, genotoxicity, mutagenicity, and other toxicities. Current disposal techniques employed in disposing biomedical wastes are sewage/drains, incineration, and landfills. These practices are normally costly and might transform pollutants from one toxic form to another. Whereas bioremediation is an inexpensive method of employing naturally occurring microorganisms or plants to detoxify man-made pollutants to harmless products that make soil fertile as well in the process. Researchers have also evolved genetically engineered microbes to remediate environmental pollutants including radionuclides. Phytoremediation is also a type of sustainable methods, which is reasonable and competent in handling heavy metals and radioactive waste generated from hospitals. In this article, we have summarized rational applications of bioremediation techniques of using effective microorganisms and plants in enhanced removal of several recalcitrant pollutants including biomedical waste. Our review highlights the challenges and future perspectives to bioremediate non-biodegradable and potentially toxic hospital wastes.