Monday, December 12, 2022

India’s larger Mountains of Biomedical Waste and the business of recycling biomedical waste from landfills

Not good news! How big is the issue of recycling biomedical waste in India? The article quotes mostly NGO sources, which is dubious!

Apparently, the government of India early on (March 2020) took action to prevent this kind of recycling. The article hints that these measures were actually successful to prevent this kind of recycling.

"... He earns $1 per kilogram for the gloves or plastics he finds, selling them to a scrap dealer who, in turn, sells the waste for recycling.
Hanif and many of his neighbors turned to collecting BMW during the pandemic because gloves, masks, and other such plastic from hospitals were in high demand. ...
India has long lacked proper waste management, but the pandemic heightened need for investment in handling medical waste. During the pandemic, the country generated an average of 774 metric tons of BMW per day, much higher than the 619 metric tons in 2019. During peak days, daily BMW waste reached 1,614 tons, of which 60% was COVID-19 waste. ...
On March 18, 2020, India’s Central Pollution Control Board issued its first guidelines of the pandemic. It ordered all COVID-19 waste—even the waste that could potentially be processed and recycled—to be separated from regular waste and incinerated ..."

India’s Mountains of Biomedical Waste | Global Health NOW

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