During the coronavirus pandemic, the total amount of medical waste has increased significantly, in fact, it almost doubled in the US and around the world. To solve this problem, it’s necessary to launch a new centralized scheme of management of medical and biological waste involving both healthcare facilities and local biohazard cleanup services providence ri. In particular, local biohazard cleanup services providence ri must be responsible for dealing with so called “covid waste” generated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Environmental bomb: mountains of masks and gloves
Each inhabitant of the Earth, on average, produces about two cubic meters of garbage per year and with the world pandemic the amount of waste has doubled. The negative consequences this waste has on both humanity and the environment can be compared to the nuclear bomb and it’s of pivotal importance to support local biohazard cleanup services providence ri in their fight with this disaster. It’s also necessary to draw attention to the problem of littering the planet, raise the level of environmental awareness and culture and make sure that local biohazard cleanup services providence ri have everything in their disposal to do their job properly.
Experts warn that used personal protective equipment (PPE) not only harms the environment, but also people, as it can become a source of infection. Masks and gloves on city streets are classified as class B medical waste, which means they require special treatment procedures performed by local biohazard cleanup services providence ri.
According to Chinese scientists, the dangerous virus like coronavirus can live up to a week on masks and gloves. What’s more, a mask which war worn by a person who tested positive with COVID 19 can “infect” another household waste as well as those people who touch it. Therefore, most countries have developed strict regulations on the correct use of PPE and their disposal by special services like local biohazard cleanup services providence ri. For example, in the UAE, people are being fined for improper handling of used masks. According to local regulations, the mask must be packed in a plastic bag and only then thrown into the trash bin. In India, the mask must be cut into pieces (so that there is definitely no way to reuse it), left in a paper bag for three days, and only then thrown away.
Scientists agree that compliance with such sanitary standards reduces the risk of infection considerably. At the same time, special bins have already appeared in some countries for collecting used medical masks, gloves and other PPE – they are placed in supermarkets, shopping centers, hotels and other public facilities. These measure will certainly help local biohazard cleanup services providence ri deal with this type of waste effectively.
One of the latest technologies used for disposal of biohazard waste is pyrolysis or pyrolysis incineration. The whole mechanism consists of two chambers. In the first chamber waste is decomposed into molecules and in the second one gases are burned to generate energy. One such unit can process 45-50 thousand tons of medical waste per year and produce 3-5 MW of electricity. This is the most modern technology that allows ocal biohazard cleanup services providence ri to effectively destroy medical waste of any hazard class.
All in all, the governments understand how dangerous the “covid waste” is and are trying to introduce new ways and technologies to dispose of it, which is good news for all human beings globally.