Safe management of health-care waste is essential to protect patients, health workers and communities, prevent pollution and support safe, high-quality health services. To help countries and health facilities strengthen practice, the World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a new free online course, ‘Advanced health care waste management, including considerations for treatment, mercury and pharmaceutical waste’, available on the WHO Academy online learning platform.

Developed by WHO and UNICEF with contributions from partners, the self-paced course provides practical guidance for people responsible for planning, managing and improving health-care waste services. It covers the full waste pathway, from classification and segregation through storage, transport, treatment and finally disposal, as well as waste minimization, recycling, treatment capacity, infrastructure planning and the safe management of mercury-containing devices and pharmaceutical waste. The six-module course includes knowledge checks, a final assessment and confirmation of participation certificate.