(Production: Jesús Nicolás)
The COVID-19 pandemic has also imposed a new reality on us: we have incorporated masks, gloves and disinfectant gels into our everyday objects. Most of these products, necessary due to the extraordinary situation we live in, are disposable, and we may have doubts about the appropriate way to manage this waste.
The first of all is to become aware that gloves and masks cannot be abandoned in the middle of the public road or in the field. They are necessary to protect our health, but we also protect the health of our environment. The Libera Project, an alliance formed by Ecoembes and SEO / BirdLife, has already warned of the proliferation of waste of this type: “ citizens are asked to take care of the health of the planet, avoiding the abandonment of gloves and masks that can end in natural spaces. Different studies indicate that some pathogens, including viruses, can use garbage as a vector for their expansion ”.
Where is each type of waste deposited?
The instructions on waste management during the health crisis situation caused by COVID-19 is regulated by the Ministry of Health in Order SND / 271/2020, published in the Official State Gazette on March 22.
” Gloves and masks must be deposited in the disposal container, which is gray or green depending on the municipality, ” explains Raquel Casado García, a graduate in Environmental Sciences and Deputy Mayor for Infrastructure, Urban Planning and the Environment of the Montilla City Council. (Cordova). This is the container to which all the waste that does not have a specific recycling container goes or is taken to the clean point, as well as organic waste in the case of municipalities that do not have the organic fraction implemented (brown container).
In the case of cans of hydroalcoholic gels and other disinfectant products, these are treated as cleaning products and therefore are thrown into the container (yellow), it is not necessary to take them to the SIGRE point for the recycling of medicines.
For cases of coronavirus
The indications are a little different in the case of people who are quarantining at home for suffering or having suffered from COVID-19. “Those people have to be isolated in a room. The waste that is in direct contact with these people or that they have handled, such as napkins, must be collected in a bag located in the same room ”, explains Casado. “This bag is closed and deposited in turn in a second bag located at the door of the room and in which the gloves and material used by the person who attends the patient are also deposited.” The second bag closes well and can be put in the trash that is kept at home for the garbage that is thrown in the gray or green container.
“In some places with a special incidence of coronavirus, it was also possible to enable specific containers for this waste,” the expert explains. “We, for example, have done it in a nursing home that was the main focus in our town. In this case, specific containers were set up in which these second bags are thrown and which are considered sanitary waste , which is why they receive special treatment ”.
