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July 2012
EDA Office of Foreign Trade • Riverside County, California • USA
then removes the water, which can be
treated and re-used on the next batch
of medical waste. The end result of each
treatment is a fluffy, confetti-like paper
product that is easily disposable.
The TrinovaMed machine has the
potential to revolutionize the medical
waste disposal process, O’Neill said,
because hospitals and medical groups
that now must contract with processors
– and pay their price per pound – for
disposal will have more options.
“If they process there on site, it saves
them a fortune,” O’Neill said. “We have
created the new standard for dispos-
ing of medical waste, and we are much
cleaner than all the other alternatives.”
The TrinovaMed machine can treat
medical waste to a level where
there is a one-in-a-million chance
of a potentially harmful organism
surviving the treatment process – the
same measure used for sterilizing lab
instruments, said Brian Williams, Vice-
President of AGT’s healthcare division.
Most states require that medical
waste be treated only to a level of a
one-in-10,000 chance, meaning the
TrinovaMed machine is roughly 100
times more effective than required by
law, Williams said.
The TrinovaMed machine also can
process about 8,000 pounds of medical
waste over an 8-hour period using
only about 150-200 gallons of water,
Williams said. That is only about 3-5
percent of the water that would be
needed to generate enough steam to
process the same amount of medical
waste in a traditional autoclave, he said.
The volume of the waste also is reduced
by about 80 percent as a result of the
process, making the end product much
more landfill-friendly.
“That saves landfill space, and it’s a very
clean and dry product,” Williams said.
“It’s like confetti versus a big melted
lump that comes out of an autoclave.”
The TrinovaMed machine also is being
used by a healthcare group in Portland
that includes 11 facilities, including
five hospitals, which generate about
1.5 million pounds of medical waste
each year, or about 30,000 pounds per
week. The TrinovaMed has meet all
the company’s budgetary and waste
reduction goals during the 18 months it
has been in use, Williams said.
The machine’s ability to treat
medical waste while using only a
fraction of the water has drawn
interest from Saudi Arabia, United
Arab Emirates, India and Oman,
Williams said. AGT also is working with
a potential distributor in Ireland,
and is in the design phase on
mobile platform that could process
medical waste in the field while
still withstanding the 120-degree
temperatures that are common in
many Middle Eastern countries.
Riverside County’s Office of Foreign
trade has been very helpful providing
letters of visitation for some of our
prospective customers in China and
Russia.
The result of the process looks like a fine confetti.