Kanwar V S, Sharma A, Kanwar M, Srivastav A L, Soni D K
Chitkara University School of Engineering and Technology, Chitkara University, Solan, Himachal Pradesh India.
Chitkara University School of Computer Applications, Chitkara University, Solan, Himachal Pradesh India.
Int J Environ Sci Technol (Tehran). 2023;20(7):8025-8040. doi: 10.1007/s13762-022-04287-5. Epub 2022 Jun 6.
Amid COVID-19, world has gone under environmental reformation in terms of clean rivers and blue skies, whereas, generation of biomedical waste management has emerged as a big threat for the whole world, especially in the developing nations. Appropriate biomedical waste management has become a prime concern worldwide in the pandemic era of COVID-19 as it may affect environment and living organisms up to a great extent. The problem has been increased many folds because of unexpected generations of hazardous biomedical waste which needs extraordinary attentions. In this paper, the impacts and future challenges of solid waste management especially the biomedical waste management on environment and human beings have been discussed amid COVID-19 pandemic. The paper also recommends some guidelines to manage the bulk of medical wastes for the protection of human health and environment. The paper summarizes better management practices for the wastes including optimizing the decision process, infrastructure, upgrading treatment methods and other activities related with the biological disasters like COVID-19. As achieved in the past for viral disinfection, use of UV- rays with proper precautions can also be explored for COVID-19 disinfection. For biomedical waste management, thermal treatment of waste can be an alternative, as it can generate energy along with reducing waste volume by 80-95%. The Asian Development Bank observed that additional biomedical waste was generated ranged from 154 to 280 tons/day during the peak of COVID-19 pandemic in Asian megacities such as Manila, Jakarta, Wuhan, Bangkok, Hanoi, Kuala Lumpur.
在新冠疫情期间，世界在清洁河流和蓝天方面经历了环境改革，然而，生物医疗废物管理问题却成为全球尤其是发展中国家面临的巨大威胁。在新冠疫情大流行时代，适当的生物医疗废物管理已成为全球首要关注的问题，因为它可能在很大程度上影响环境和生物。由于意外产生的有害生物医疗废物，这个问题的严重性增加了许多倍，需要格外关注。本文讨论了固体废物管理尤其是生物医疗废物管理在新冠疫情期间对环境和人类的影响及未来挑战。本文还推荐了一些管理大量医疗废物以保护人类健康和环境的指导方针。本文总结了更好的废物管理实践，包括优化决策过程、基础设施、升级处理方法以及与新冠疫情等生物灾害相关的其他活动。正如过去在病毒消毒方面所取得的成果一样，在采取适当预防措施的情况下，也可以探索使用紫外线进行新冠病毒消毒。对于生物医疗废物管理，废物热处理可以作为一种替代方法，因为它既能产生能量，又能将废物量减少80%至95%。亚洲开发银行观察到，在新冠疫情高峰期，如马尼拉、雅加达、武汉、曼谷、河内、吉隆坡等亚洲大城市，每天额外产生的生物医疗废物量在154至280吨之间。
