By Sarah Hannan
Although Sri Lanka seems to be making policy decisions and enacting laws to reduce the use and production of single-use plastic and polythene, the Covid-19 pandemic has hampered these efforts.
The mandatory use of facemasks when going into public settings, the increased dependence on food and grocery delivery services, healthcare, and Covid-19 pandemic prevention frontline workers having to attire in personal protective equipment (PPE) only meant that there was going to be additional waste generated due to the pandemic.
A recent study completed by the World Bank titled “The Impact of Covid-19 on Plastic Waste Management in South Asia” estimated that Sri Lanka used 17,136,519 disposable masks per day. Before the pandemic, it was estimated that out of the total waste generated in Sri Lanka, 179,550 tonnes of plastic waste was mismanaged.
The study also highlighted that social distancing led to an increase in at-home deliveries. According to one estimate, the global plastic packaging market is projected to grow from about $ 909 billion in 2019 to more than $ 1 trillion by 2021.
Moreover, with concerns over virus transmissibility from surfaces, the plastic recycling industry got affected as the demand for recycled plastic dropped by 50%. Informal waste pickers were also unable to supply recyclers with raw material as the volume of plastic collected dropped by 65%.
In the meantime, the plastic industry was banking in on the low oil prices during the time, proposing that it was more cost-effective to produce virgin plastic than recycling plastic, and advocated single-use plastics as the more hygienic option to combatting the Covid-19 virus, arguing that germs thrive on reusable materials that are often not washed.
Managing waste
Foreseeing the issues of waste management in Sri Lanka, the Central Environment Authority (CEA) in March 2020 issued “Interim Guideline for Management of Solid Waste Generated by Households and Places under Self-Quarantine due to the Covid-19 Outbreak”.
The guidelines had issued instructions on how to handle the waste that gets collected to the local authorities and stakeholders, and had included special instructions for households on segregating their waste.
It is also evident that there is also an increased risk in improper disposal of these materials, and it is estimated that 87% of the excess plastic waste was from hospitals, rather than from individual use.
CEA Waste Management Division Deputy Director General Eng. J.M.U. Indrarathne, explaining the increase in waste generation after Covid-19, noted that: “During pre-covid times, the waste generated from the healthcare system was about 30 metric tonnes (MT) per day, whereas during Covid times that increased by 12 MT, totalling up to 42 MT per day. To manage the waste that is generated within a day, the CEA has sought the assistance of two private waste disposal facilities that process 15 MT and 2 MT of waste, respectively. In addition to that, we also have 60 incinerators and 20 metamizers in government hospitals, which can process 10 MT of waste per day. Then the private hospitals have incinerators that process about 3 MT per day.”
Eng. Indrarathne confirmed that pre-Covid, the CEA had the capacity of processing 38 MT of healthcare waste per day whereas, after Covid, the capacity had to be increased to 44 MT per day.
“The capacity was increased by issuing a licence to a private waste processing facility in the Southern Province which could process 2 MT per day, and we added additional incinerators to Chilaw District General Hospital and Kurunegala Teaching Hospital that could process 2 MT of waste. Another incinerator facility with a processing capacity of 2 MT per day was built in the Sabaragamuwa Province as well,” Eng. Indrarathne elaborated.
Impact on health
Environmental and Occupational Health Directorate Consultant Community Physician Dr. Inoka Suraweera informed that Covid-19-related waste is generated at the household level, workplace level, healthcare settings, intermediate care settings, vaccine centres, and then is extended to packaging waste due to the increase in food and grocery orders that took place during the lockdowns. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the waste that is generated at all these levels.
“There have been reports from hospitals as well as intermediate care centres where they had noticed that the patients had even disposed of pillows, clothing items, and sheets along with the polythene and food waste. This causes a massive problem when the waste needs to be disposed of, as they get mixed with all other waste,” Dr. Suraweera explained.
She further reiterated that improper disposal of Covid-19-related waste can cause bigger problems than the virus spreading among the community, such as air pollution, water and marine pollution, and soil pollution, and cause occupational health and safety issues to healthcare staff, cleaning staff, and municipal waste handlers. Overall environmental pollution, therefore, can have a long-term impact not only on the health of the people but also on the environment itself.
“Healthcare waste handlers are at the greatest risk during the Covid-19 pandemic. Workers are at risk from infection and injury from hazards, especially sharps waste that are not disposed of in puncture-resistant containers. The risk of acquiring a secondary infection following needle-stick injury from a contaminated sharp depends on the amount of the contamination and nature of the infection from the source patient,” Dr. Suraweera elaborated.
Covid 19: Risks and challenges in waste management
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in their report on “Waste Management during the Covid-19 Pandemic” identified risks and challenges associated with waste management in Covid-19 pandemic for waste generated through households as well as healthcare facilities.
Waste generated through household/ domestic waste management (MSW) posed the risk and challenge of:
- Increased amount of mixed waste, including infectious waste due to low levels of segregation at source
- Increased amount of plastic waste (due to lockdowns, suspension of reusable items in stores, etc.)
- Lack of estimates on the amount of household hazardous waste being generated
- Increased littering, illegal dumping, and open burning
- Suspension of recycling activities
- Mixing of infectious waste such as gloves, masks, tissues, and gauze with other wastes (exposure to transmission)
- Discontinued provision of formal/ informal waste management services
- Increased negative impacts, especially to the informal sector (OSH, health risk, business opportunity loss, etc.)
- Improper MSWM service provided during normal times (vulnerability in collection services and landfill operation as well as OSH)
- Lack of awareness regarding waste management
- Reuse of disposed PPE
- Lack of daily supply of PPEs to waste collectors
- Increased amount of infectious waste generation
- Service interruptions of healthcare waste management services
- Improper healthcare waste management treatment in place
- Suspension of recycling activities
- Insufficient capacity for waste treatment and disposal