… Says it is threatening human and environmental health globally
The World Health Organisation, WHO, has raised the alarm over the danger, posed by tonnes of extra medical waste from COVID-19 response across the world, stating that the strain caused by the pandemic on waste management is currently threatening human and environmental health.
The WHO Global analysis also said the situation has also exposed the dire need to improve waste management practices across the world.
The WHO Global analysis of health care waste in the context of COVID-19: status, impacts and recommendations bases its estimates on the approximately 87,000 tonnes of personal protective equipment (PPE) that was procured between March 2020 and November 2021 and shipped to support countries’ urgent COVID-19 response needs through a joint UN emergency initiative. Most of this equipment is expected to have ended up as waste.
The authors noted that the report provided an initial indication of the scale of the COVID-19 waste problem and does not take into account any of the COVID-19 commodities procured outside of the initiative, nor waste generated by the public like disposable medical masks. They pointed out that over 140 million test kits, with a potential to generate 2,600 tonnes of non-infectious waste and 731,000 litres of chemical waste have been shipped, while over 8 billion doses of vaccine have been administered globally producing 144,000 tonnes of additional waste in the form of syringes, needles, and safety boxes.
As the UN and countries grappled with the immediate task of securing and quality-assuring supplies of PPE, less attention and resources were devoted to the safe and sustainable management of COVID-19 related health care waste.
Reacting to the report, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme, Dr Michael Ryan, said: “It is absolutely vital to provide health workers with the right PPE. But it is also vital to ensure that it can be used safely without impacting on the surrounding environment.”
This means having effective management systems in place, including guidance for health workers on what to do with PPE and health commodities after they have been used.
Today, 30 percent of healthcare facilities are not equipped to handle existing waste loads, let alone the additional COVID-19 load. This potentially exposes health workers to needle stick injuries, burns and pathogenic microorganisms, while also impacting communities living near poorly managed landfills and waste disposal sites through contaminated air from burning waste, poor water quality or disease carrying pests.
Speaking, Director, Environment, Climate Change and Health at WHO, Dr Maria Neira stated that COVID-19 has forced the world to reckon with the gaps and neglected aspects of the waste stream and how to produce, use and discard of health care resources, from cradle to grave.
“Significant change at all levels, from the global to the hospital floor, in how we manage the health care waste stream is a basic requirement of climate-smart health care systems, which many countries committed to at the recent UN Climate Change Conference, and, of course, a healthy recovery from COVID-19 and preparedness for other health emergencies in the future.”
The report lays out a set of recommendations for integrating better, safer, and more environmentally sustainable waste practices into the current COVID-19 response and future pandemic preparedness efforts and highlights stories from countries and organizations that have put into practice in the spirit of “building back better”.
It also recommended use of eco-friendly packaging and shipping, safe and reusable PPE, recyclable or biodegradable materials; investment in non-burn waste treatment technologies, such as autoclaves; reverse logistics to support centralized treatment and investments in the recycling sector to ensure materials, like plastics, can have a second life.
