The Covid-19 situation in India has now reached to an alarming stage, even though there’s a rise in the recovery rate and fatality rate has remained much below the global average, the rapid rise in new cases threw India into a biomedical waste mess.
Biomedical waste brings forward the biggest hurdle in the post-pandemic world. Before the pandemic, India was struggling with its poor waste management system but this sudden crisis shows a rapid rise in the volume of medical waste.
Most personal protective gears produced during Covid-19 are made from plastic for single-use and are disposed. PPE kits which are used for shielding frontline workers and sanitary staff from the Covid-19 has now become a great amount of potentially infectious waste. With the rise in PPE production, its waste management is now becoming a concern for India. The more they are being used, the more biomedical waste we are creating for ourselves.
Waste segregation
Poor segregation of Covid waste by households has resulted in biomedical waste mixing up with other waste posing a serious health risk for sanitation workers and waste pickers.
The CPCB report recommends the use of a dedicated collection bin labelled as “COVID-19” to store COVID-19 waste and keep separately in temporary storage room prior to handing over to the authorized staff of CBWTF (Common Bio-medical Waste Treatment and Disposal Facility). Biomedical waste collected in such isolation, wards can also be lifted directly from ward into CBWTF collection van.
Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has issued guidelines to handle #COVID__19 related waste on 19/03/2020, 25/03/2020 and 18/04/2020.
Salient features of the guidelines;-@moefcc @MoHFW_INDIA @PrakashJavdekar @DrGargava pic.twitter.com/yvpL6OcJg9— Central Pollution Control Board (@CPCB_OFFICIAL) May 26, 2020
Things to follow while disposing of bio-medical waste
- CPCB has directed masks and gloves used by persons other than COVID-19 patients should be kept in a paper bag for a minimum of 72 hours prior to disposal of the same as general waste after cutting the same to prevent reuse.
- Caretakers of COVID-19 patients under home-care shall store the biomedical waste in the yellow coloured bag provided by Urban Local Body.
CPCB shares Best Practices for CORONA Prevention. Learn simple methods of safe disposal of Masks, Wipes and Gloves. #COVID19Pandemic @RavindraKhaiwal @SumanMor_PU@OfficialPU @DrJagatpgi @DrGargava @moefcc @MoHFW_INDIA pic.twitter.com/oo2ejdAoAf
— Central Pollution Control Board (@CPCB_OFFICIAL) July 8, 2020
- General waste from home care or quarantine center or quarantine camp shall be handed over as solid waste to authorized waste collector of Urban Local Body (ULB – Municipal Corporation / Municipality).
Witnessing the threat of biomedical waste, SC has also made it mandatory for all municipal corporations and state pollution control boards to use the ‘COVID19BWM ’ app for tracking biomedical waste daily.
CPCB developed a system of tracking of #COVID19 related biomedical waste. A Mobile App called COVID19BWM has been launched. It tracks and records the quantity of waste generated, transported and disposed to a common disposal facility. Let us be safe and make others safe as well pic.twitter.com/xqYEYoSsMb
— Central Pollution Control Board (@CPCB_OFFICIAL) June 6, 2020
Improper handling of bio-medical waste in times of Covid-19 may give birth to a new crisis. It has already put India’s waste management treatment system under stress.
The need is to realise that practice of indiscriminate disposal of items can be a potential source of infection for municipal workers and rag pickers. So, one should follow the guidelines by CPCB for the disposal of Covid waste at the household and individual level.
