Bio Medical Waste

2020 has been the year of biomedical waste. The already surmounting problem of biomedical waste has been exacerbated by the recent pandemic of COVID-19. India had not been properly treating all of its biomedical waste till 2019.

2020 brought in new challenges for us in the realm of biomedical waste management.

In only the month of November 2020, COVID-19 added to on an average 162 tonnes of BMW per day other than the general 610 tonnes/day of BMW that was generated, marking a mammoth increase of 27%.

India is currently using 198 CBWTFs (Common Biomedical Waste Treatment Facilities), for COVID-19 related BMW, out of the 202 functional CBWTFs that were present at the end of 2019. Even then, the fraction of treated biomedical waste keeps falling by the day.

A lot of these untreated biomedical wastes have been dumped into water bodies leading to water pollution and shoreline pollution. Uncontrolled incineration of these wastes can lead to the release of harmful gasses into the atmosphere, causing severe air pollution. Exposing the contagious biomedical waste from COVID-19 treatment can potentially increase the chance of infections among the common public and also transfer to other species.

The use of disposable masks and face shields has shown a huge increase due to better personal hygiene practices induced by the coronavirus pandemic

However, they are rarely disposed of properly. Most households dispose of them along with the general waste which makes segregation very difficult.