Aafrin Kidwai 
Representative Image by alexroma from Pixabay
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a new report which quantifies the additional COVID-19 healthcare waste generated from 2019 onwards. It outlines present healthcare waste management systems and their flaws, as well as developing best practises and alternatives for reducing waste’s negative impact on human and environmental health.and summarizes emerging best practices and solutions to reduce the impact of waste on human and environmental health.
Titled Global analysis of health care waste in the context of COVID-19, India’s handling of COVID waste is included as a case study for ‘Improving waste segregation to reduce the quantity of waste incinerated and other innovations to increase recycling of waste’. Here’s an excerpt from the report:
To tackle the increase in waste generated, the Central Pollution Control Board, under the Ministry of Environment, produced a set of waste guidelines in 2020 that emphasized the importance of waste segregation. The ministry regularly amended the guidelines in an effort to further reduce the amount of waste incinerated and placed a greater focus on non-burn and environmentally sustainable technologies and practices, such as autoclaving, microwaving and recycling by state-approved facilities. Training in local languages on COVID-19-appropriate waste disposal and hygiene practices was conducted, and mass media communication was used to educate the general public on management of COVID-19 waste generated at home.
In tandem, the ministry launched a COVID-19 medical waste mobile application to track generated waste amounts, as well as transport and reception at the treatment centres. This includes tracking of waste vehicles to prevent theft of waste and unauthorized recycling of waste.
