The Indian campaigning group Safenviron claims that untreated clinical and related wastes wastes are finding their way to plastic recycling vendors without first being made safe.

“Medical needles, saline bottles, syringes, and other equipment used to treat patients suffering from various ailments in hospitals are meant to be discarded once and for all to safeguard public health.

“But not all hospitals in the city are adhering to the norm. Vehicles operated by Safenviron, the authorised agency to collect and dispose of all kinds of hospital wastes, visit these hospitals daily to collect the waste but do not carry back 100 per cent of the discard.

“This is because a small part of the ‘waste’ such as used needles, saline bottles, and syringes is unlawfully retained and handed over to a few persons by the lower-level staff in the hospitals.

“From the hands of the collector of this ‘discard’, the medical waste finds its way to the local plastic vendors. The fact that the entire ‘medical waste’ is not handed over to Safenviron drops broad hints at a foul game.

This is a common problem, largely driven by greed and corruption. We have discussed it many times previously on the Clinical Waste Discussion Forum. Education, as Safenviron proposes, is one approach to improvement though that is unlikely to work without robust regulation and stringent policing.

This is, for sure, one recycling operation that should not continue. Good luck to Safenviron.