Proper Management of Medical, Hazardous & Municipal Waste Vital in Face of Virus : UNEP Adds to Calls for Governments to Consider Waste Management an Essential Service

Weighing in with its two pence worth, UN Environment has joined many other voices in calling for governments to treat waste management, including of medical, household and other hazardous waste, as an urgent and essential public service in order to minimise possible secondary impacts upon health and the environment.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which has a mission to provide leadership in caring for the environment and ‘enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations’, warned that during such an outbreak, many types of additional medical and hazardous waste are generated. “Unsound management of this waste could cause unforeseen “knock-on” effects on human health and the environment. The safe handling, and final disposal of this waste is therefore a vital element in an effective emergency response,” it said in a statement.

UNEP continued: “ Effective management of biomedical and health-care waste requires appropriate identification, collection, separation, storage, transportation, treatment and disposal, as well as important associated aspects including disinfection, personnel protection and training. The UN Basel Convention’s Technical Guidelines on the Environmentally Sound Management of Biomedical and Healthcare Wastes, includes information and practical aspects of waste management useful for authorities seeking to minimise hazards to human health and the environment.

“Further resources on the safe handling and final disposal of medical wastes can be found on the website of the Basel Convention’s Regional Centre for Asia and the Pacific, in Beijing, which lists a series of guidance documents and best practices.

“The safe management of household waste is also likely to be critical during the COVID-19 emergency. Medical waste such as contaminated masks, gloves, used or expired medicines, and other items can easily become mixed with domestic garbage, but should be treated as hazardous waste and disposed of separately. These should be separately stored from other household waste streams and collected by specialist municipality or waste management operators. Guidelines on the specificities of recycling or disposing of such waste is given in detail in the Basel Convention’s Factsheet on Healthcare or Medical Waste.

“Parties to the Basel Convention are currently working on a guidance document for soundly managing household waste and whilst not yet finalised, an initial draft may be consulted for provisional guidance.

“The BRS Executive Secretary, Rolph Payet, stated that ‘All branches of society are coming together to collectively beat the virus and to minimise the human and economic impact of COVID-19 across the world. In tackling this enormous and unprecedented challenge, I urge decision-makers at every level: international, nationally, and at municipal, city and district levels, to make every effort to ensure that waste management, including that from medical and household sources, is given the attention - indeed priority - it requires in order to ensure the minimisation of impacts upon human health and the environment from these potentially hazardous waste streams.’”

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