以EEIO模型分析臺灣醫療廢棄物回收策略之循環經濟效益及環境衝擊

Abstract

隨著全球人口成長與高齡化，醫療服務需求逐年攀升，醫療廢棄物也隨之遽增。特別是COVID-19疫情後，一次性醫材的大量使用，更使廢棄物管理系統不堪負荷。醫療廢棄物因其感染性，多採用焚化處理，此法雖能有效滅菌與減容，卻會產生溫室氣體、空氣污染物及有害的飛灰、底渣，且無法回收寶貴的物質資源。在國際社會推動永續轉型與淨零排放的浪潮下，為醫療廢棄物尋找兼顧安全與環保的循環經濟解方，已成為全球醫療體系刻不容緩的議題。除了醫療行為產生的廢棄物，醫院內的食物浪-費也是另一項嚴峻的挑戰。造成食物浪費的原因複雜，不僅涉及病患的健康狀況、食慾及對餐點的滿意度，也包含餐飲服務模式中難以預估用餐數量、食材季節性變化等營運挑戰。傳統上，這些廚餘多被送往焚化或掩埋處理，進而造成環境污染與土地佔用等問題。如何在確保病患獲得充足營養的同時，兼顧永-續的廢棄物管理，已成為全球醫療產業日益關注的焦點。 回收再利用是國際公認的趨勢，能賦予廢棄材料新生，減少原物料開採與焚化污染，並帶動產業發展。然而，臺灣雖推動回收多年，成效卻已趨緩，焚化量仍逐年增長。統計至112年，即便有44%的醫院參與再利用計畫，多數機構的回收申報量仍低於19%，顯示回收潛力遠未被開發。其根本原因在於，國內缺乏對回收潛力、材料組成的系統性盤點，亦未針對國外新興回收項目與技術進行可行性與效益評估，導致政策制定與產業發展陷入瓶頸。為此，本研究旨在盤點臺灣醫療廢棄物的最大回收潛力，並建構「環境延伸投入產出分析」模型，模擬不同循環經濟策略對臺灣整體產業經濟與環境的衝擊。研究設定四種情境進行比較：(1)現況估算、(2)開發現有法規技術條件下的最大回收量、(3)開放新回收項目、(4)引入塑膠化學回收與廚餘厭氧消化等新再利用技術。 本研究結果顯示，臺灣醫療廢棄物的回收潛力龐大，若能充分開發，回收量可較現況翻倍成長。策略模擬分析進一步指出，不同的回收路徑將帶來迥異的經濟與環境效益。若僅是開發現況下的最大回收量，雖能提升生產效率並有效降低多數環境衝擊，卻會因滅菌前處理等製程而加劇資源損耗。而在開放新回收項目的情境中，將醫療廢玻璃與金屬再利用於混凝土製品，因混凝土產業本身的高污染特性，其經濟與環境效益皆不理想，應審慎評估此再利用路徑。研究證實，引入化學回收與厭氧消化等新技術方為最佳解方，此策略不僅能最有效地降低進口依賴與全面性的環境損害，更能驅動產業結構朝向高附加價值、低環境衝擊的正面轉型，應列為政府中長期的政策推行目標。

With the growth of the global population and a trends in population aging, the demand for healthcare services has surged, leading to an annual increase in medical waste. This issue was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which strained waste management systems with a high volume of single-use supplies. The main disposal method, incineration, while effective for sterilization, is unsustainable due to its generation of greenhouse gases, hazardous ash, and the loss of recoverable resources. Beyond the medical waste management, food waste presents another significant challenge within hospitals. Finding a circular economy solution for medical waste that balances both safety and environmental protection has become an urgent issue for global healthcare systems. Recycling is an internationally recognized circular economic strategy that gives new life to waste materials, reduces raw material extraction and incineration pollution, and stimulates industrial development. However, despite years of promoting recycling in Taiwan, its effectiveness has plateaued, and incineration volumes continue to grow annually. According to statistics as of 2023, even though 44% of hospitals participate in recycling programs, the declared recycling volume for most institutions remains below 19%, indicating that the recycling potential is far from being fully exploited. The root cause lies in the domestic lack of a systematic inventory of recycling potential and material composition. Furthermore, no feasibility and benefit analyses have been conducted on emerging international recycling items and technologies, leading to a bottleneck in both policy formulation and industrial development. This study addresses the lack of systematic analysis of this potential by using an Environmentally-Extended Input-Output (EEIO) model to simulate the economic and environmental impacts of three circular economy strategies. These scenarios include a baseline representing the current situation, maximizing current recycling potential, introducing new recyclable items, and adopting advanced technologies such as chemical recycling for plastics and anaerobic digestion for food waste. The findings reveal that Taiwan's medical waste recycling potential is substantial, with the capacity to double the current volume if fully recycled. The strategic simulation reveals that while maximizing the recovery volume for mechanical recycling can enhance production efficiency and effectively reduce most environmental impacts, it paradoxically increases resource depletion due to processes such as pre-treatment sterilization. Furthermore, the study identifies that recycling medical glass and metal into concrete products is an economically and environmentally unfavorable pathway due to the high-polluting nature of the concrete industry. This pathway should therefore be evaluated with caution. The research concludes that the adoption of advanced technologies like chemical recycling and anaerobic digestion is the optimal solution.This approach most effectively reduces import dependency and mitigates comprehensive environmental damage, driving a necessary industrial transformation toward a high-value-added, low-impact model that should be a long-term policy objective.