This study, conducted in 2019 by WHO, looks at safe health care waste management, including segregation, collection, transport, treatment and waste disposal and understands that it is fundamental to wider efforts to provide quality and safe health care. The report includes safe health care waste management practices and understands that this supports a number of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Goal 3 on health, Goal 6 on safely managed water and sanitation, Goal 7 on climate change and Goal 12 on sustainable consumption and production.

This research is based on new global data released by WHO/UNICEF in 2019, where data from the represented 560,000 facilities from 125 countries, indicate that 40% of health care facilities do not segregate waste.