NEW DELHI: Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), recently released a data which states that India has generated around 33,000 tonnes of COVID-19 biomedical waste in the last seven months. COVID-19 bio-medical waste include masks, shoe covers, gloves, human tissues, items and beddings contaminated with blood or body fluid, blood bags, needles, syringes, PPE (Personal protective equipment) kits, etc.
According to the data, India generated over 5,500 tonnes of COVID-19 waste in October, which was the maximum waste in any month so far. The data added that all states and union territories have generated 32,994 tonnes of COVID-19-related biomedical waste since June 2020. This waste gets collected, treated and disposed of by 198 common biomedical waste treatment facilities (CBWTFs) situated across the nation.
The data established that Maharashtra generated the maximum amount of waste, amounting to 5,367 tonnes of it in seven months since July 2020. Kerala generated 3,300 tonnes; Gujarat, 3,086 tonnes; Tamil Nadu, 2,806 tonnes; Uttar Pradesh, 2,502 tonnes; Delhi, 2,471 tonnes; West Bengal, 2,095 tonnes; and Karnataka, 2,026 tonnes. Around 4,530 tonnes of such waste was generated in December alone. The CPCB in March 2020, during the early days of the pandemic, had issued specific guidelines for handling, treatment and disposal of such waste at healthcare facilities, quarantine centres, homes, sample collection centers, laboratories, pollution control boards, urban local bodies and CBWTFs. In May last year, CPCB had also developed a mobile application called ”COVID19BWM” to monitor coronavirus-related biomedical waste and to compile the data through electronic manifest system. This application has been in usage to track COVID-19 waste to ensure that the waste is collected, transported and sent to the registered CBWTFs.