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Red flag over poor disposal of used gloves and facemasks

Wednesday October 21 2020
mask

More than six months into the pandemic, it is feared that face masks and gloves used in households, workplaces and on the street may end up in water courses and soil, putting human health and the natural ecosystem in danger. PHOTO | FILE

By JOHNSON KANAMUGIRE

The country's limited capacity in waste management is posing great danger in handling of used personal protective gear used to combat Covid-19.

More than six months into the pandemic, it is feared that face masks and gloves used in households, workplaces and on the street may end up in water courses and soil, putting human health and the natural ecosystem in danger.

With over 80 firms licensed to manufacture respiratory protective materials for a market of over 12 million people, the government initially estimated that three million facemasks were needed in the market on a weekly basis, implying that a big volume of especially single use PPE were being disposed of.

Alexis Sebarenzi Gatoni, environmental researcher, and assistant lecturer at University of Rwanda’s School of Architect and Built Environment said unlike before when PPE kits were in the medical waste chain that systematically handles them, use by general public only created an additional threat and burden to the inefficient waste management system. 

Mr Gatoni noted that in absence of prior arrangement with contractors in the waste collection firms to adjust refuse collection systems, it was difficult to account for covid-19 protective materials generated in households, workplaces and those worn by members of the public on the street.

“Of course something can be done but it is difficult to trace something as small as a mask months later in a situation where people don’t sort waste. Now you are telling them to sort a particular thing while in their normal life they have no such habit,” he said, adding that the extent of the PPE risks would depend on their varying chemical composition.

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“Some are more harmful to the environment than others,” he noted.

Environment regulator had in April issued guidelines on management of used facemasks, requiring that all used PPEs generated by the public in households, workplaces and other establishments be stored separately pending formulation of a nationwide plan to efficiently handle them in a more systematic way.

However, according to contractors in the waste collection, there was no mechanism to enforce this, and a big chunk of the waste has been making their way into the general disposal systems.

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