Waste management: Only two of 177 hospitals reported to tribunal

10 recycling units sealed in December ordered open 15 days later.

LAHORE:

As many as 177 hospitals have been found to be violating Hospital Waste Management Rules 2002 by the Environment Protection Department (EPD), said Deputy District Officer (DDO) Younas Zahid.

Under the rules, the waste should be incinerated. Instead, it has been alleged it is being sold to waste collectors across the city who send it to as many as 40 recycling units, situated in north Lahore, where it is crushed and re-sold for use in manufacturing plastic goods.

DDO Younas Zahid was ordered by the EPD secretary to survey recycling units and hospitals after a report published in The Express Tribune on December 8 which quoted businessmen accusing Zahid of accepting bribes from owners of recycling units to let them continue buying hospital waste.

The survey included recycling units. Zahid said he found 27 recycling units purchasing infected waste for its ‘superior plastic quality’. Urine and blood bags and bottles are made of polystyrene and polythene – which are considered the purest forms of plastic. Out of the 27 units, 10 were sealed in mid-December. They were ordered opened 15 days later by DCO Noorul Amin Mengal after EPD inspectors found that they were selling ‘clean plastic’.



Zahid said a committee was formed on December 12 and a survey of the plastic recycling units and hospitals followed. On being issued warnings, he said, the recycling units stopped purchasing hospital plastic. He said some of the units relocated.

Zahid said businesses were sealed if they ignored warnings. Sometimes, he said, they relocate. “Those found purchasing hospital waste started pointed fingers at others,” he said. However, he added that “six or seven visits following those tip-offs had found no recycling.”

Zahid said some of the recycling units they inspected have not been issued warnings because they were purchasing domestic plastic scrap.



Younas would not comment on why the cases of only two hospitals – Shalamar and Childrens – of the 177 identified had been forwarded to the Environment Tribunal. “Our job is to compile a site inspection report and forward it to the head office. It is their job to forward the cases to the Environment Tribunal,” Zahid said.

An official working closely with the committee formed to conduct the survey said the officials of the Planning and Coordination Department and the Legal Affairs Department were responsible for forwarding cases to the Environment Tribunal.

Shahid Hassan, director of Planning and Coordination and also the committee convenor, and Legal Affairs Director Nawaz Manik were not available for comment.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2013.