Photos: Covid-19 aggravates India’s biomedical waste crisis
Over the past three months, India’s overflowing landfills have seen the addition of hazardous biomedical waste to their ever-rising piles. This waste brings severe health risks over and above the existing ones to waste pickers, sanitation workers and garbage collectors that function in them. The coronavirus pandemic has thus created a new waste crisis.
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Used personal protective equipment (PPE) kits improperly disposed at a graveyard in New Delhi on June 23. In the past three months, PPE including masks, gloves, face shields, shoe covers, and sanitiser bottles have ended up in already overflowing landfills, posing a health risk to waste pickers, sanitation workers and garbage collectors tasked with handling them. (Sanjeev Verma / HT Photo)
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Family members and health workers in PPE during the cremation of a Covid-19 victim at Nigambodh Ghat on June 22. In Delhi, over 40 sanitation workers have tested positive for the virus, and 15 have lost their lives. In Mumbai, 10 workers and two security guards at the city’s two landfills, in Deonar and Kanjurmarg, have been infected with Covid-19, and recovered. (Sonu Mehta / HT Photo)
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A man throws a used glove into a dustbin overflowing with used PPE bodysuits at Nigambodh Ghat cremation ground in New Delhi on June 23. From a daily necessity for health workers to individual and organisation level usage, PPE gear has become ubiquitous in recent months. India is on the brink of a Covid-induced waste crisis, and authorities are aware of it. (Sanjeev Verma / HT Photo)
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According to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) guidelines, biomedical waste is to be disposed off in yellow bags meant for incineration at a common biomedical waste treatment facility (CBWTF). As are items in contact with Covid-19 patients. This waste is either taken to a CBWTF or a waste-to-energy plant, where it is either incinerated, autoclaved or burnt to produce energy. (Sanjeev Verma / HT Photo)
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