The amount of waste generated due to the pandemic has shown a significant increase in numbers, especially medical waste. In normal situations, medical waste is only produced by hospitals or health facilities. However, with current conditions, we know there are some people who are self-isolating due to Covid-19 at their own house. Inevitably, this has caused households to generate even more medical waste. Based on data from April 2020 - January 17 2021 compiled by the Department of Environment, it was noted that Jakarta produced 12,785 tons of medical waste. 1,538 kilograms or about 1.5 tonnes of waste are generated from household waste. Medical waste generated by households such as disposable masks, latex gloves, and hazmat suit is an infectious waste that has the potential to infect other people with the coronavirus. If the disposal isn’t carried out with proper management, instead of recovering immediately from the pandemic, we would be faced with a new havoc. Therefore, a safe and responsible medical waste management should be the responsibility of all levels of society, from the government to every individual. Then, as a Smartcitizen, what can we do to improve this situation?

Procedures for Managing Medical Waste Safely

Medical waste management that we can apply in our daily life is actually very simple. We are only expected to separate the infectious waste apart from our regular waste so that the cleaning personnel can take special precautions when collecting the infectious trash bags. To make it even easier to do, follow these simple steps:

Prepare a closed trash can and a special trash bag to accommodate the waste.

If there is someone who is infected with Covid-19, put the trash can in one corner of their isolation room and keep it in a safe distance from the bed.

If the trash can is full, empty it by putting the waste into a bag. You can use a thick yellow plastic bag and make sure it’s tightly closed before throwing it away. If you don't have a yellow plastic bag, you can use any trash bag and label it as infectious waste

Before being handed over to the cleaning personnel, spray the waste bag with disinfectant. Don't let the waste transmit the virus to other people.

Most importantly, wash your hands with soap after handling the trash.

After the trash can is empty, disinfect it first before filling it with a new trash bag.

Another way to improve this whole waste management is to start using cloth masks instead of the disposable ones. Non-medical cloth masks consisting of two layers of polypropylene spunbond and two layers of cotton have been proven to meet the minimum requirements for droplet filtration according to the guidelines from Comité Européen de Normalisation CEN CWA 17553. One thing to note, make sure you wash your cloth mask every day! Wash the cloth mask using detergent in hot water with a temperature of at least 60 ° Celsius.

Handling the Medical Waste by Type

Medical waste is not only limited to masks and gloves. There are several other types of medical waste that also need proper handling. The list below will help you manage the waste by its type.

Gauze, tissue, cotton

For medical waste like this, disposal can be done by putting it in a yellow bag and disposing it into a closed trash can.

Personal protective equipment, gloves, masks:

This type of medical waste can be disposed through these steps:

Turn the inside of the PPE, gloves and masks before throwing it away

Cut and fold these items so it can't be reused 

Disinfect the items before disposal by spraying disinfectant

Put it in a trash bag, close it tightly, then mark it as medical waste

Pads and diapers

Clean the diaper first before throwing it away 

Wrap the diaper or pad in used paper

After that, put the trash in a yellow bag in a closed trash can

Leftover food ingredients, food scraps, cardboard / plastic food packaging

Put the leftover food into the yellow bag in a closed trash can.

Sharps infectious waste (syringes, infusion equipment, former rapid test)

Put all sharps infectious waste into used cardboard or plastic bag

Put it in a yellow bag in a closed trash can

What Can We Do to Prevent the Negative Effects of Medical Waste?

Responsible waste management, done. Switching from disposable masks to cloth masks, done too. Then what else can we do?

Help your local authority to collect data on people who are doing the self-isolation that will produce infectious waste. 

If there are no special cleaners who can transport medical waste, the community can contact the nearest health facility so the medical waste can be collected along with the health care facility medical waste.

Organize residents to collect medical trash bags from the homes of residents who are quarantining and place it in available dropboxes.

For families whose family members are quarantining, please collect the medical waste in a special bag that is tightly closed before handing it over to the special cleaners. Make sure the trash bags are out of children’s reach.

If there are no special cleaners, ask the community or the Covid-19 Task Force to contact the nearest health worker to collect the waste bags. Make sure the bag is placed in a safe place and can be easily collected by the cleaners.

The last and most effective point for reducing the medical wastes is to use cloth masks. Don’t forget to wash off your mask after four hours of use to keep it sanitized.

Let’s be more aware of managing our waste! If we’re committed to manage the medical waste we produce responsibly, we can save our environment like the ocean from a rampant pile of masks. These small yet significant steps would help all the cleaners to do their job and absolutely protect our loved ones from the damage we don’t want. Oh, and the Earth probably would thank us too.