医疗垃圾又称医疗废物，是指接触了病人血液、肉体等由医院产出的污染性垃圾，如使用过的棉球、纱布、胶布、废水、一次性医疗器具、手术后的废弃物、过期的药品等。医疗垃圾具有空间污染、急性传染和潜伏性污染等特征。

      与生活垃圾不同，医疗垃圾物含有大量的细菌、病毒及化学药剂，具有超强的传染性、生物毒性和腐蚀性，未经处理或处理不彻底的医疗垃圾任意堆放，极易造成对水体的土壤和空气的污染，对人体产生直接或间接的危害，也可能成为疫病流行的源头。

      医疗垃圾是一类特殊危险废物，医疗垃圾处理问题已经成为全世界关注的热点，中国在《危险垃圾名录》中将其列为1号危险垃圾。加强对医疗垃圾规范化的管理和无害化处理，无论是在保护环境还是疾病预防和控制方面都具有及其重要的意义。

    Medical waste are hospital output polluting waste that has blood contact with patients body, such as used cotton ball, gauze, tape, waste water, disposable medical supplies, operation used waste, expired medicines, etc. Medical waste will cause space pollution, acute infection and latent pollution characteristics.

    Unlike domestic waste, medical waste material contains a large number of bacteria, viruses and chemicals, with super contagious, biological toxicity, and corrosion resistance, medical wase that did not go through proper cleaning treatment orpile up, easy to cause soil and air pollution of water body, directly or indirectly harm to human body. Waste without treatment or incomplete treatment, medical waste that are piled up arbitrarilyare can also be the source of epidemic diseases.

    Medical waste is a special kind of hazardous waste, medical waste disposal problem has become the hot spot in the world, China has been listed for being no.1 for dangerous wastes. To strengthen the management and disposal of medical waste standardization, both in the protection of the environment and disease prevention and control is a important significance.