PPCB to introduce bio-degradable bags

Kuldip Bhatia

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Ludhiana, May 19

The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has decided to replace plastic bags with bio-degradable bags for the collection, storage and disposal of bio-medical waste in hospitals.

Around 8-10 tonnes of plastic bags are used per month for the storage and disposal of bio-medical waste by healthcare facilities in Punjab. The bio-degradable bags for collection, storage and disposal of biomedical waste were launched by a team of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the PPCB at the Civil Hospital here.

Aditya Narayan, Joint Director, MoEFCC, New Delhi, Shradha Gupta, UNIDO, PPCB Chief Environmental Engineer (CEE) Pradeep Gupta, SEE Rajiv Garg and other officials of the PPCB and representative from hospitals of the district covered under the UNIDO project were present.

The red colour-coded bags for the collection, storage and disposal of biomedical waste were distributed among the health institutions by the common biomedical waste treatment facility operator Medicare Environmental Management PrivateLimited, Ludhiana.

Chief Environmental Engineer of PPCB Pradeep Gupta appealed to the hospitals to shift towards compostable bags as an environment-friendly approach.

He said the PPCB had already conducted the trial of these bags by providing sample bags for free to some common bio-medical waste treatment facilities and healthcare facilities. He said the bags were found to be durable and the strength was also good, adding that the trial of the bags was found to be successful.

Baba Jaswant Singh Dental College will be using bio-degradable bags, which were made available to it by the PPCB, in association with the Union Ministry of Environment and United Nations Industrial development organisation (UNIDO). Officials of the Punjab Pollution Control Board provided these compostable bags to BJS Dental College, Hospital and Research Institute, Ludhiana. These bio-degradable bags would replace the use of plastic bags used for collection, storage and disposal of biomedical waste in hospitals.

BJSDC is the only dental health care facility under the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) to recieve bags.