NEW DELHI: In the last one year, 56,898 tonnes of Covid-19 waste has been generated across the country. Kerala and Tamil Nadu have the biggest gap in biomedical waste generation and treatment facility available, despite being in the list of top five states that generated maximum Covid waste in the country.
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has reported there are 202 operational Common Biomedical Waste Treatment Facilities (CBWTF) in the country for treatment and disposal of Biomedical Waste (BMW). “The CPCB has developed an app, COVID19 BWM, to track the generation and disposal of Covid-19 bio-medical waste (BMW). States/UTs have reported about 56898.14 tonnes of COVID-19 BMW generation on the app between June, 2020 and June, 2021,” the Rajya Sabha was informed in response to a question.
To treat additional Covid BMW during the pandemic, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra had utilised hazardous waste incinerators for disposal of yellow colour coded (incinerable) Covid waste in line with CPCB Guidelines. Other states that reported a shortfall in waste incineration facilities compared to waste generation include Maharashtra, Delhi, Punjab, Odisha and Bihar. BMW generation per day was 757.6 tonnes per day against the treatment of 822 tonnes per day.
The Centre said that Covid BMW has to be segregated as per Schedule I of Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 2016 (BMW Rules, 2016). Thereafter, the collected BMW is required to be handed over to CBWTF operators for final treatment and disposal. The CPCB has issued guidelines for ‘Handling, Treatment and Disposal of Waste Generated during Treatment/Diagnosis/ Quarantine of COVID-19 Patients’.