Barcode biomed waste disposal to debut in Jharkhand

RANCHI: The Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board (JSPCB) is gearing up to launch a barcoded (QR) biomedical waste disposal system, which was mandated by the Centre under the Bio-medical Waste Management Rules, 2016. Jharkhand will become the second state to do so after Haryana, said officials of state pollution watchdog on Saturday, hoping for its proper implementation in the days ahead.
On June 25, JSPCB will convene a meeting with all stakeholders (medical/clinical entities) to help them adoptthe system. In April this year, JSPCB formally mandated barcoding for biomedical waste disposal mechanism in the state, but it is yet to evince much interest.
Talking to TOI on Saturday, JSPCB chairman A K Rastogi said the board is playing the role of a facilitator to motivate user agencies to adopt barcode waste disposal system than just resort to slapping fines to be able to ensure that it becomes a sustainable model.
Explaining the concept, he said, “Each heal hub will be given a unique ID and every consignment of medical waste originated from it will be coded (labelled) till it reaches the disposal designation. Every label will have details of its origin, location, details of quantity and type of waste.”
He added, “The idea behind this move is to curb malpractices of unscientific disposal of biomedical waste. At times, reports surface from hospital/nursing homes etc discarding biomedical waste in water bodies, municipal waste etc. Under the new system, once the code is generated, it will have to be disposed within 48 hours at the designated centre only.”
On how will the system function, Rastogi said they have tied-up with a private agency for the operations and have also devised an app and an online portal for this purpose. “Every hospital, nursing home, clinic etc where medical waste is generated has to mandatorily take a QR code, following which they will get a unique ID, which will store the transaction history of their biomedical waste handling,” he said, adding that JSPCB will also be able to track it on real time basis at any given point in time.
Currently, Jharkhand has two common biomedical waste treatment facilities in Ramgarh and Lohardaga while a few more are in the pipeline, he said.
While the exact data on bio-medical waste generation couldn’t be ascertained, JSPCB officials said on an average smaller facilities generate about 2kg waste while hospitals and nursing homes generate nearly 20kg. Roughly, Ranchi alone has over 300 such units including big hospital, nursing homes and clinics.