Covid-19 waste problem

A lot of waste: Covid-9 clinical waste includes PPE, syringes and food waste from quarantine centres.

PETALING JAYA: About 400 tonnes – or the weight of four blue whales – that’s the average weight of Covid-19 clinical waste generated every month in Malaysia this year.

Examples include personal protective equipment (PPE) worn by frontliners, syringes, used test swabs, body fluid and food waste from quarantine centres, said the Department of Environment (DOE).

The mountain of clinical waste is pushing treatment facilities to the limit in Malaysia.

But this may soon change with food waste and containers from quarantine centres declassified as clinical waste and now categorised as municipal solid waste.

“For the first nine months of this year, 3,576 tonnes of Covid-19-related waste was produced nationwide,” the department told Sunday Star.

That makes up 8% of the overall 44,793 tonnes of clinical waste produced in Malaysia during the same period (Jan 1-Sept 30).

So far, the amount of clinical waste this year has exceeded the reported 30,958 tonnes produced in the country last year.

With the heavy load, the department said all licensed facilities treating such waste are now operating “at full and beyond their capacity”.

“The increase in clinical waste due to Covid-19 has generated backlogs in such premises.

“This has affected the technological and storage capacities of these facilities to effectively dispose of all clinical wastes,” it added.

Currently, there are eight licensed premises in the country, with five appointed by the government.

To deal with the issue, the department has given temporary approval to licensed facilities to set up mobile incinerators to expedite the treatment of clinical wastes.

It also granted approval for temporary storage to boost storage capacities.

One reason for the huge pile up is the food waste and food containers from Covid-19 quarantine centres being considered as clinical waste.

“We have highlighted that this has significantly increased the quantity of clinical waste, upsetting the performance of the licensed treatment facilities,” the department said.

The DOE is expecting the amount of clinical waste to decrease after the Health Ministry declassified food waste and containers from quarantine centres, and started treating them as municipal solid waste from Aug 24 this year.

It also believes the closure of vaccination centres and the recent decline in Covid-19 cases will lead to less trash.

However, Prof Dr P. Agamuthu from the Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development at Sunway University said there is a risk in declassifying such waste used by Covid-19 patients.

“There is a risk that the coronavirus is passed in the food.

“This is similar to the face mask the public wears and disposes of which is currently treated as solid waste and not clinical waste,” he said, adding that all clinical waste are incinerated.

Prof Agamuthu, who specialises in solid and hazardous waste management, said patients who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms (Categories One and Two) are quarantined at home so they would also produce waste that ends up in normal landfills that collect household waste.

“Most will not know how to sterilise their food containers before they throw it.

“So garbage collectors or waste scavengers would risk being exposed to the virus,” he said, urging for more caution on this matter.