Waste management goes for a toss in Kochi

Kochi Corporation reiterates it has not asked collectors to avoid going to houses of quarantined people, but residents’ associations complain their waste is not being collected

Garbage bags piled up at the entrance of PVS Hospital in Kaloor, which is a Covid First Line Treatment Centre. Triple lockdown restrictions is affecting waste management in many areas | Albin Mathew

KOCHI: Waste management and scientific disposal have been a headache for the corporation and its people for long. Now, with a triple lockdown in place, the corporation’s laxity in ensuring waste collection in many parts of the city is troubling many residents. With roads blocked in containment zones, waste collectors are unable to reach many residential areas and apartment complexes.

Ernakulam District Residents Association Apex Council (EDRAC) president Rangadasa Prabhu complained daily waste collection has been halted at many places, even in areas where people are in quarantine. They made repeated requests to the councillor, but all that ended in vain, Prabhu alleged.

“The waste from houses with Covid patients being left unattended is a concern. When patients are directed to stay indoors, there should be a clear system to deal with the waste from their houses. Once collected and segregated, this must also be disposed of scientifically. We did not get a clear answer from the corporation regarding this,” Prabhu said.

DOS

• Caretakers of Covid patients under home care must keep the biomedical waste in a yellow bag provided by the corporation
• Caretakers of suspected or confirmed (asymptomatic and mild symptomatic) patients in home isolation must hand over the yellow bag to the authorised waste collector from an urban local body or common biomedical waste treatment facility operator
• Caretakers may deposit the yellow bag at a designated deposition centre of the corporation
• General waste from home care, quarantine centres or quarantine camps can be handed over as solid waste to authorised waste collectors of urban local body
•  Keep used masks and gloves immediately in a paper bag for a minimum of 72 hours before handing over the same to the waste collector. Cut the used items into pieces before disposal to prevent reuse
• Those running a quarantine camp or quarantine centre must contact the common bio-medical waste treatment and disposal facility (CBWTF) operator for removal of biomedical waste as and when generated.

DON’TS

• Never mix general waste with biomedical waste such as used syringes, expired or discarded medicines, used masks or gloves
• Never dispose of used masks of suspected or confirmed (mild symptomatic or asymptomatic) Covid patients in bags other than yellow bags
• GENERAL GUIDELINES
•  Positive or suspected Covid patients shall never use fabric masks or home-made masks
• Don’t leave your used mask within the reach of others
•  Don’t reuse surgical masks or gloves
• Quarantine centres, camps or homecare should not store biomedical waste for more than 48 hrs
• Dedicated waste collectors cannot deny the collection of waste from quarantine centre/quarantine camp or homes with Covid patients
•  Persons operating quarantine camps or caretakers at home can reach out to the corporation for assistance

COVID WASTE MANAGEMENT – DOs & DON’TS
(For quarantine camps/centres and homes as provided by the Central Pollution Control Board under the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change)