Coronavirus could pose yet another risk - a surge of contaminated medical waste

Trash – we discard it and forget about it.

But the coronavirus pandemic poses a new threat to the people who handle the garbage after you’re done with it – medical waste workers. An influx in coronavirus-contaminated trash has industry leaders concerned about increased risks to their workers and the public.

Usually, the industry sterilizes medical waste by burning it, dousing it with hot steam, or chemically disinfecting it before it’s taken to a landfill, The Verge said. In Southern California, the waste management industry runs trash through 300-degree steam and puts 50 pounds per square inch of pressure on it, effectively killing COVID-19, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Industry leaders worry though that if coronavirus continues to spread as quickly as it is now, “networks of hospitals, waste haulers and treatment centers could be overburdened by a surge of regulated medical waste — masks, gloves, booties, bed linens, cups, plates, towels, packaging and disposable medical equipment,” the LA Times said. That surge in contaminated trash threatens the health of disposal workers, according to the Times.

China, where the coronavirus first emerged, built a new medical waste plant and deployed 46 mobile treatment facilities to respond to the increased amount of medical waste, The Verge said. Hospitals generated six times as much medical waste at the peak of the outbreak than before, amounting to 204 metric tons of trash, according to The Verge.

The United States is already seeing an uptick in the amount of waste from personal protective equipment (PPE), according to the medical waste company Stericycle. Some things that normally aren’t considered medical waste, like food, need to be handled more carefully after coming in contact with a coronavirus patient, Stericycle said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on its website that medical waste from the coronavirus pandemic can be treated the same as regular medical waste, although regulations are governed by state health and environmental departments, as well as by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Department of Transportation, The Verge said. Despite what the CDC says, medical waste industry leaders say the flood of trash could result in infections among their workers, according to the LA Times.

The industry is preparing for the surge by requesting the relaxation of state and federal rules governing infectious and biological waste, the Times said. The National Waste and Recycling Association, which represents more than 700 firms nationwide, “is asking for extensions on renewals of expired commercial driver’s licenses, greater leeway on the amount of medical waste that can be stored at treatment facilities and more flexible ‘hours of service’ rules to provide more time to meet their customers’ demands,” the Times reported.

But what about outside the medical industry? The coronavirus exists in communities as well.

That means people could be generating plenty of contaminated trash. That creates an added risk for all sanitation workers, since the virus can stay on some materials for up to three days, according to a study from the New England Journal of Medicine.

If garbage is bagged correctly and workers are wearing PPE, especially gloves, the risk of catching the virus is slim, David Biderman, CEO of the Solid Waste Association of North America, told The Verge.

This story was originally published March 30, 2020 at 4:53 PM with the headline "Coronavirus could pose yet another risk - a surge of contaminated medical waste."