How India Is Disposing Of Covid Vaccine Syringes

New Delhi, 10 April 2021:

First there were the PPE kits, with masks, gowns, face shields, gloves, etc, being used by healthcare and frontline workers, and diagnostic equipment for conducting Covid-19 tests. Now, there are syringes — lakhs and lakhs of them — for India’s Covid vaccination drive, which is the world’s largest.

Since it took hold last year, the Covid pandemic has resulted in the generation of tonnes of biomedical waste.

Last month, the government estimated India’s daily biomedical waste output at 146 tonnes. This means that every day India is producing roughly the equivalent of a blue whale — the largest animal in the world — in biomedical waste.

The contribution of syringes alone is ballooning. According to one estimate offered by Onsite Waste Technologies, an American company that specialises in medical waste disposal, the needles from the number of vaccine doses needed to inoculate the entire US population — about 66 crore — would be enough to wrap around the Earth 1.8 times.

To put it into context, India’s population (including minors, who are currently not eligible for vaccination) exceeds the US’ by approximately 100 crore. As of Friday, India had administered 9,43,34,262 doses.

Another estimate, this one by industry body Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AIMED), said the world needs 800 crore-1,000 crore syringes to vaccinate 60 per cent of the population — the approximate threshold for herd immunity. India alone would require at least 150 crore syringes to inoculate 60 per cent of its approximately 135 crore people, they calculated.

It may sound like a lot, but experts say the disposal of used syringes — which weigh no more than a one-rupee coin — isn’t something to fret about. According to them, no biomedical waste is of any concern if disposed of appropriately.

India has a dedicated legal framework to oversee its disposal, which lays down an elaborate procedure — comprising colour-coding, sterilisation, incineration, recycling and burial — to strip the waste of any risk.  The Print