![]() ![]() “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.” “COVID-19 has forced the world to reckon with the gaps and neglected aspects of the waste stream and how we produce, use and discard of our health care resources, from cradle to grave,” said Dr Maria Neira, Director, Environment, Climate Change and Health at WHO. 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. Today, 30% of healthcare facilities (60% in the least developed countries) are not equipped to handle existing waste loads, let alone the additional COVID-19 load. 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. “But it is also vital to ensure that it can be used safely without impacting on the surrounding environment.” “It is absolutely vital to provide health workers with the right PPE, “said Dr Michael Ryan, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme. They point out that over 140 million test kits, with a potential to generate 2,600 tonnes of non-infectious waste (mainly plastic) and 731,000 litres of chemical waste (equivalent to one-third of an Olympic-size swimming pool) 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.Īs 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. It 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. The authors note that this just provides an initial indication of the scale of the COVID-19 waste problem. Most of this equipment is expected to have ended up as waste. 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- November 2021 and shipped to support countries’ urgent COVID-19 response needs through a joint UN emergency initiative. Transformation into marketable artifacts such as self-locking, urban furniture, insulating panels.Tens of thousands of tonnes of extra medical waste from the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has put tremendous strain on health care waste management systems around the world, threatening human and environmental health and exposing a dire need to improve waste management practices, according to a new WHO report.Downgrading the landfill for their final disposal. ![]() Cold inertization of liquids, sludge and partially liquid wastes containing dangerous metal cations in order to:.Material consolidation takes place within a few hours at room temperature. The chemical inertization process consists of a cold mixing of the liquid waste with an appropriate quantity of aluminosilicate powders (of natural origin or arising from industrial waste) and a strongly alkaline solution (also this coming From end-of-waste). The final material appears as an inorganic solid with thermal, chemical and mechanical stability, comparable to that of a stone or ceramic. The new product is designed to stabilize liquid wastes, in particular wastes containing soluble chromium salts and some anions, such as chlorides, sulphates and oxalates. The invention consists in the chemical formulation of a matrix capable of stabilizing and separating chromium, such as other heavy and non-heavy metals, from the solution.
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