India News | Principal Scientific Advisor Stresses Need for Early Stage Sorting of Biomedical Waste

New Delhi, Aug 14 (PTI) Principal Scientific Advisor K VijayRaghavan emphasised on Saturday the need to focus on early stage sorting of the bio-medical waste.

Addressing Swachhta Saarthi Samvaad under the 'The Waste to Wealth Mission', organised by his office, VijayRaghavan said there are very clear-cut norms on disposal of biomedical waste and the problem is not about what is to be done about the biomedical waste.

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"You have to break needles in a particular way by putting them in needle containers. Suits and clothes which have been exposed to disease have to be treated in another way before taking it to the incinerators," he said in response to a question on disposal of large amounts of biomedical waste which is being generated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Different kinds of waste, which have the danger of being reused where they should not be, have to be cut in certain ways and put in different categories of containers, depending on their source, he said.

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"Many people, when they focus on the biomedical waste, they focus on incinerating or treating it in some other way and they don't focus on early stage sorting of the waste," the PSA said.

He said it is very important to sort it, both for the safety reasons and also those who are handling it should not be handling toxic or infectious material.

Following the entire change of procedure is very very important, VijayRaghavan stressed.

The event organised on Saturday is an extension of the Swachhta Saarthi Fellowship that has been established with the aim to recognise students, community workers/self-help groups, and municipal/sanitary workers who are engaged in tackling the enormous challenge of waste management, scientifically and sustainably.

The fellowship is a community-centric programme that will build awareness around waste management across the nation.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)