CEE Jan-Mar 2012

n • they treat, evading the scanner," Babu says. Toothless rules • Do not penalize violators under the Environment(Protection) Act • No provision to set up more medical waste– treatment facilities or upscale them; there are 168 plants against 95,000 hospitals • Allows deep burial of medical waste in rural areas where there is no access to treatment plant. This could contaminate soil, water • No provision to increase transparency and coordination within pollution control boards, often blamed for poor implementation. Doctors and hospital owners say the rules only increase their burden. In a letter to the ministry, Sangrur (Punjab) chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), has asked how it justified to make doctors liable for improper disposal of waste when most waste is disposed of through government faciliti es. The rul es need to have the provision for setting up more common medical waste– treatment facil ities or upscaling them, says Ragini Kumari of Taxies Link, a non-profit in Delhi. Currently, just 168 such plants cater to the needs of more than 95,000 hospitals in the country. "When the rules get implemented, load on these plants would increase tenfold," she adds. Amandeep Agarwal of Sangrur IMA, agrees. The district has 200 registered hospitals but not a single medical waste treatment facility. "We send medical waste to a treatment plant in Ludhiana. Once the rules come into force, around 2,000 clinics and hospitals in the district will send waste there," he adds. The whole of Punjab has just four medical waste-treatment facilities. Some states like Manipur have just one medical waste– treatment facility. Many other do not report how much waste they generate or treat. Still , CPCB claims that the country treats over 70 per cent of its medical waste. The rules need to provide for better coordination among medical waste monitoring committees and transparency within the pollution control boards, Kumari says. The rules should discourage the use of toxic products like polyvinyl chloride (PVC), thereby reducing the toxicity of the medical waste, rues Bharti Chaturvedi of Chintan, a non– profit that works on hazardous wastes. PVC, widely used as blood-bags and other medical accessories, releases toxic mercury, dioxins and phthalates into the environment. An official of Andhra Pradesh state pollution control board says major drawback is in the definition of medical waste. It includes the waste generated during diagnosis, treatment and immunization, but not placenta and wastes from post mortem which are equally potential sources of infection . There is no clause asking polluters to pay for clean-up of sites contaminated due to medical waste dumping, he adds. Courtesy: Down to Earth, Nov. 16-30, 2011 P18- 19. Waste to Wealth & Waste Recycling WASTE MANAGEMENT AND RECYCLING TECHNOLOGY: EFFICIENT TECHNOLOGIES FOR MODERN SOCIETIES The growing world population needs more energy, more resources and produces more waste. As a result reliable technologies for renewable energy production, recycling and disposal as well as material efficiency help to achieve sustainable economic growth all over the world. German suppliers of waste treatment and recycling technology offer these solutions. Renewable energy The calorific value of waste can be used to generate renewable energy in many ways. Power generation from waste is more efficient and climate– friendly than conventional coal and gas power stations . x Biogas plants turn waste into combustible gas being used in generators. The organic waste material (household waste, leftovers and more) are pre– processed and then placed in fermentation plants, where microorganism "digest" them and transform them into biogas. x Directly burnt waste in inci neration plants is also a good way to boost climate protection. German technology suppliers are the best contact persons to get efficient technology. In the field of incineration the combined heat and power generation is well– established. But energy efficiency is not a unique feature. Today a main issue is the overall efficiency including non-operation periods and material efficiency - on the way 65