Covid 19 and Integrated Biomedical waste management: An Indian Perspective

Abstract

The pandemic of COVID-19 has led to socio-economic-environmental crisis at a global level. Such emergencies have affected the generation and disposal of bio medical wastes both in quantitative and qualitative terms. These scenarios have posed serious challenges to the decision and policy makers to ensure sustainability of environment. The present study attempts to address the challenges faced by the existing biomedical waste management charter to combat huge amount of waste generation. Developing country particularly India stands second among the reported number of COVID positive cases across the world. This has led to enormous hike in the generation of biomedical waste. Thus, the present study tries to highlight the various COVID driven problems and the necessary chalking out strategies thereby integrating traditional and modern techniques of waste management from cradle to crest alongside assessing various government policies and guidelines. The study further recommends improvements in Biomedical waste management sector to subjugate ongoing and future challenges of pandemic.