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and organizations that generate medical waste as a result of their activities are defined as health
institutions.
It is forbidden to discharge medical wastes directly or indirectly into the receiving environment
in a way to harm the environment and human health. It is essential that medical wastes are not
mixed with other wastes such as hazardous, non-hazardous, municipal or packaging wastes. Me-
dical wastes must be collected, temporarily stored, transported and disposed of separately from
other wastes at the source.
Those involved in the collection, transport, temporary storage and disposal of medical waste are
jointly and severally liable for impacts caused by environmental pollution and degradation caused
by medical waste. Persons, institutions/organizations responsible for the management of medical
waste are obliged to take the necessary measures to reduce the harmful effects of these wastes
on the environment and human health. Health institutions are obliged to meet the necessary ex-
penses for the collection, transport, sterilisation and disposal of their wastes.
The responsibility for separate collection of medical waste at source, transport and temporary sto-
rage of medical waste within the health institution belongs to the health institutions; the respon-
sibility for taking the wastes from medical waste temporary storages/containers, transporting/
having transported them to the medical waste processing facility, sterilisation and/or disposal,
establishing/having established, operating/having operated a medical waste processing facility
for this purpose belongs to metropolitan municipalities in metropolitan areas, municipalities in
other areas or persons and institutions to which they have delegated their authority.
Infectious wastes and sharp-piercing wastes can be rendered harmless by sterilisation. Medical
wastes can also be disposed of by incineration. However, due to factors such as the high invest-
ment and operating costs of incineration plants, difficulties in the treatment of flue gases such as
dioxin and furan that will be formed as a result of combustion, and the separate disposal of wastes
that are considered hazardous wastes, wastes that are rendered harmless by sterilisation and lose
their medical waste quality can be disposed of in Class II sanitary landfills instead of incineration
of medical wastes.
Provided that it complies with the provisions of the By-law, the medical waste fee to be based on
collection, transport, sterilisation and disposal expenditures shall be determined and announced
by the local environmental board of the province where the medical waste is generated each year
and notified to the Ministry. In the determination of the medical waste disposal fee, the transpor-
tation distance of the waste to the sterilisation and/or disposal facility and the sterilisation and/or
disposal costs are taken into consideration.
From 2017 to 2021, Medical Waste Statistics were prepared based on the declarations made to
the Waste Declaration System (TABS) of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate
Change (MoEUCC) within the scope of the annual study between the MoEUCC and the Turkish
Statistical Institute and published in the bulletin prepared under the common logo of the two
institutions. Within the scope of the Official Statistics Programme, medical waste statistics were
transferred to the responsibility of the MoEUCC as of 2021 statistics. In this context, medical waste
statistics for 2021 are prepared by the Directorate General of EIA, Permit and Inspection of MoEUCC
and published on the website of the Directorate General under the title of “Medical Waste Statis-
tics Bulletin”.

The amount of medical waste in 2019 and 2020 given in Table 84 includes the data of health ins-
titutions (university, maternity and general purpose hospitals and clinics) declaring to MoEUCC
TABS, and the amount of medical waste in 2021 includes the data of all waste generators declaring
medical waste.

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