UNITED NATIONS
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has urged Governments around the world to treat the safe disposal of medical, household and other hazardous waste as an essential public service in order to minimise possible secondary spread of COVID-19.
In a statement, the UNEP said in the course of the pandemic many types of additional medical and hazardous waste were being generated, including infected masks, gloves and other protective equipment.
“Unsound management of this waste could cause unforeseen knock-on effects on human health and the environment,” the UNEP said.
“The safe handling and final disposal of this waste is therefore a vital element in an effective emergency response.”
The statement said effective management of biomedical and health-care waste required appropriate identification, collection, separation, storage, transportation, treatment and disposal, as well as important associated aspects including disinfection, personnel protection and training.
“The safe management of household waste is also likely to be critical during the COVID-19 emergency,” it said.
“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.”
It urged medical waste to be separately stored from other household waste streams and collected by specialist municipality or waste management operators.
Geneva, 26 March 2020
