Swamped with waste from COVID care centres, the only common biomedical waste treatment facility in the State in Palakkad is struggling to deal with waste nearly 10 tonnes above its daily processing capacity.
The plant at Pudussery, operated by the Indian Medical Association Goes Ecofriendly (IMAGE) has an installed capacity of 42 tonnes, officials associated with its management said.
With the surge in testing and the number of patients, COVID waste alone hovers between 10 and 12 tonnes per day for the past week — a giant leap from the 0.6 tonnes of waste collected from COVID centres in the third week of March.
This is in addition to the roughly 40 tonnes of biomedical waste collected from other facilities including primary health centres, dental clinics, dialysis centres, palliative care centres, and private labs and hospitals. Testing and doffing of personal protective equipment at airports have also added to the amount of waste generated, with around 0.4 tonnes (400 kg) of biomedical waste generated at the Calicut airport, in addition to over 0.44 tonnes from the Thiruvananthapuram airport, collected on two separate days earlier this week. The Thiruvananthapuram central railway station adds another 14 kg to the total.
The Government Medical College Hospital in Ernakulam now generates around 548 kg in 26 barrels daily, as opposed to around five barrels of wasted collected daily in March.
Waste is segregated into yellow (organs, cotton swabs, face masks), red (plastic equipment), blue (glass vials and equipment) and white (metal) bags. Waste from the yellow bag is incinerated, while the others go through autoclaves where they are disinfected, and then shredded or recycled.
The facility is having to take in waste well over its capacity, said Dr. Abraham Varghese, State president, IMA. IMAGE has been allotted 3 acres at Brahmapuram in Ernakulam for another biomedical waste treatment facility, which could treat around 15 to 20 tonnes of waste daily from Ernakulam and nearby districts like Kottayam and Alappuzha, once it comes up.
But the lease agreement for the land is yet to be obtained, after which other clearances, including environmental clearance and one from the Pollution Control Board, will have to be sought, he said.
