Dealing with Plas-demic
By Soumya Tiwari
India has struggled with decreasing the use of single use plastic for a long time now. According to a research conducted by the University of Georgia, India produces 25,940 tonnes of plastic waste everyday and collects only 60% of it. While it is well known that plastic waste that goes untreated, either lands up in water bodies and damages them, or they are thrown into landfills where they generate toxic gas as single use plastic takes years to decay, little has been done to deal with the situation. Even though India has attempted to ban single use plastic quite a few times, it hasn’t worked out well because of lack of alternatives that are as cheap and as readily available as single use plastic. While we were still struggling to deal with this issue, the CoronaVirus Pandemic further worsened this situation for India.
Personal Protection Equipment, or PPE is one of the most major resources needed to tackle the Virus since plastics are non porous material and hence, stops the virus containing droplets from touching the skin ensuring safety for health care workers. India has been prompt in first importing PPE from other countries to now generating it. However, the issue lies with the disposal of these kits. Healthcare workers are required to change their PPE every 8 hours and dispose of the ones they were using before.
According to a report by the World Wide Fund for Nature, “If even only 1% of the masks were disposed of incorrectly and perhaps dispersed in nature this would result in 10 million masks per month dispersed in the environment. Considering that the weight of each mask is about 4 grams this would lead to the dispersion of over 40 thousand kilograms of plastic in nature: a dangerous scenario that must be defused.” Currently, incineration is used to dispose of plastic, but due to poor maintenance of incinerators, it releases several harmful gases including dioxins and furans in case of chlorinated and brominated plastic waste. This raises several environmental issues not only about the wasṭe being treated but also about the waste going untreated.
According to the data shared by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), “India generated over 18,000 tonnes of COVID-19 related bio-medical waste between June and September.” The same report also suggests that 30% of this plastic waste is being dumped in landfills and water bodies. Furthermore, a study conducted by peer-reviewed journal Environment, Development and Sustainability, has quantified the CO2 emission caused by PPE kits under two disposal scenarios, namely landfill and incineration for six environmental impact categories covering overall impacts on both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. The study shows that under the Global Warming Potential, CO2 emission is the highest wherein one tonne of PPE kits if incinerated generated 3,814–3,816 kg of CO2.
Keeping in mind the overburdened waste management system of India, experts around the country have suggested few solutions that can be carried out at local level or by the government to reduce this burden.
One of the first things that can be done is segregation of waste at the household level. In a situation where such a thing is done, not only will it protect waste collectors from doing the segregation and thus not being exposed to the virus, but also it will help take some of the burden off waste management systems. For example, Chintan a Delhi based not for profit organization has partnered with NDMC and waste pickers association named ‘Safai Sena’ for training ragpickers that during collection of waste, they ask the household to keep PPE waste in separate bags. The collected garbage is then taken to the landfill site in Ghazipur and the masks, PPE kits and gloves that are found are sent to the waste-to-energy plant in Tehkhand.
Another solution is to reuse the used PPE which is not only cost effective but also takes off a
huge burden off of waste management systems. Maser Technology, a start-up, has developed a microwave that can sterilize PPE kits and masks rendering them reusable. The name of the technology is named Optimaser and it uses microwave technology to sterilize used PPE kits and masks. Twenty PPE kits can be sterilized within 20 minutes using Optimaser and the technology has been tested by AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences).
The third solution is to recycle the PPE kits. This can be done in two ways. As reported by an article by NewsBuzz18, Binish Desai, popularly known as “The Recycle Man of India”, is creating eco-friendly bricks out of PPE kits and masks made from non-woven fabric to help decrease the burden on the environment. The bricks will contain 52 percent of shredded PPE and masks, three percent of the binder, and 45 percent paper waste. They will be water-repellant, fire retardant, and pest resistant. He also plans to introduce something called Eco Bins, which will help them to collect the waste generated in hospitals, police stations, other places where the staff or people are using PPE kits and medical-grade masks. The bins will have an indication mark to show that it is full. Once it reaches that mark, the waste is left untouched for the next 72 hours, and then it will be disinfected thoroughly. Once that is done, it is shredded, added along with paper sludge and the binding agent. Once developed, these bricks can be used for construction purposes.
Another way is to break down the polypropylene in plastics into petrol by a process called pyrolysis. The products of this process are highly useful and can be utilised as fuels or chemicals in various applications such as construction of road.The challenges of PPE waste management and increasing energy demand could, thus, be addressed simultaneously by the production of liquid fuel from waste PPE kits.
Therefore, what is needed is a careful look into the kind of problems India is producing for its environment while tackling the ongoing CoronaVirus crisis. Even though the use of PPE is essential and a central tool in terms of dealing with the crisis, producing and distributing them should not be seen as the end goal by the government. The end goal is to manage the waste produced, in such a manner that it doesn’t add to India’s plastic crisis. In short, a solution to one problem should not become a problem in another aspect.
The solutions provided above are some of the things India can work towards to not only lessen the burden of the waste management system but also work towards its larger sustainable development goals. What is needed is to implement these smaller solutions while developing a more comprehensive and stronger policy towards waste management so as to address the issue with large scale plastic usage.
