Medical Waste Management’s Sustainability During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The suddenness of the COVID-19 pandemic’s occurrence has caught the world off guard, particularly the healthcare industry, the medical waste management sector included. The abrupt increase in waste generation has led to many people asking if current waste management systems are sustainable.

Waste Generation Increase During the Pandemic

Several cities worldwide experienced a spike in medical waste generation, especially during the early days of the pandemic. Cities like Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Bangkok, and even Wuhan, saw a daily increase of up to 280 tons of medical waste.

Furthermore, the extensive lockdown measures imposed during the early days of the pandemic also contributed to several countries’ increase in domestic waste production, such as in the UK.

However, due to the workforce shortages and enforcement of stricter sanitization measures, collecting and managing these large amounts of waste became difficult.

Importance of Proper Waste Management

Properly disposing of and managing the higher amount of medical waste generated is crucial in the fight against the COVID-19 virus. Waste mismanagement can result in the further spread of the virus and increased environmental pollution.

Making Waste Management More Sustainable

To effectively address this issue, affected countries should evaluate their current waste management systems and take adequate steps towards improving them to accommodate the additional waste.

For example, prioritizing the study and design of more sustainable systems is a must. Furthermore, countries must also consider the big picture, seeing the system as a whole, rather than merely improving its parts.

Conclusion

Improving the world’s waste management systems isn’t just necessary to combat and prevent the coronavirus’s spread, but it’s also a must if countries want to build sustainable communities.
By further developing the world’s waste management systems, countries can become better prepared in case of another pandemic.