Pune’s Covid-19 waste still being sent to Mumbai as incinerator awaits repairs

PUNE: For more than a month now, Pune has been leaning on facilities in Mumbai to safely dispose of hazardous biomedical waste linked to the coronavirus pandemic.
The decision to transport the waste over 100 km away was made after Pune’s only incinerator — capable of processing biomedical waste — broke down on May 31. Its repairs, the plant operator said, are set to take another 15 days.

Until then, Covid-19 waste from Pune and its outskirts — including masks, gloves and other PPE items — will continue to be transported inside closed vehicles to a common biomedical waste treatment facility (CBWTF) in Taloja, Mumbai, for incineration.The city’s daily generation of Covid-linked biomedical waste has now hit 5,000kg — there are concerns this volume will increase as the number of cases climbs. Another 3,000kg of daily non-Covid biomedical waste is currently being transported to a facility in Baramati.
Sunil Dandawate, who operates Pune’s incinerator facility (at the Kailas crematorium near Naidu hospital, said the plant broke down under strain from Covid-19 waste, which is high on materials made from plastic.
“The massive strain of burning Covid-19 biomedical waste, which comprises a large amount of plastic, eroded the rubber inside the plant’s chimney. That caused it to break down. We have to now dismantle the chimney and replace it with a new one,” he said.
The chimney stands 30 metres high and weight about 1,000 tonnes. “It’s made as per specific design instructions. There is a lot of engineering involved in its installation as well,” Dandawate said. He added that the total repair cost is an estimated Rs 25 lakh.
Covid-19 waste from hospitals and isolation centres has been particularly difficult to deal with. Discarded protective kits used by patients and doctors are high on plastic which has a very high calorific value of approximately 7,000 +Kcal/kg. The incineration generates a lot of heat.