not only think was his dumps arissa ah, the white lot soft livelihood opportunity to local people. bud watches hope the annual census will lead to better conservation policies. they hope for more government funding and better protections. their efforts are slowly bearing fruit avenue, middle al jazeera new delhi. ah, so this is on there. these are the top stories and 3000 american troops being sent to europe to reinforce data, and deter russian invasion of ukraine. russia's president vladimir putin as accusing the u. s. and its allies of trying to lure him into war with ukraine. of u. s. a. nato already have tens of thousands of troops in europe. russia has 125000 troops, ukraine's borders. these movements are unmistakable signals to the world that we stand ready to reassure our nato allies into turned and, and defend against any aggression. now, as the secretary said, friday,

we do not know if russia has made a final decision to further and they'd ukraine. but it clearly has that capability . the department of defense will continue to support diplomatic efforts led by the white house and the state department to press for resolution. we do not believe conflict is inevitable. united states in lockstep with our allies in partners, has offered russia a path to deescalate but we will take all prudent measures to assure our own security. and that of our allies. gunman in the democratic republic of congo, killed in the 72 people in account for the internally displaced fighters from the arm group known as ca, deckers. a suspected to be behind the rate in the eastern province of terry hundreds have been killed in thousands force from the homes in the past 5 years of conflict. a guinea bazaar has set up a commission of inquiry to look into tuesday to attempted cuz it confirmed 6 people

have been killed. president motor c. so co embargo says he survived the 5 assault on the presidential palace. the supreme commission has been accused of what's been described as green washing because of his proposals to classify gas and nuclear investments as sustainable. some countries say investments should be directed towards cleaner in green energy. austria says it will challenge the action in court . the number of cobra related deaths in the us is an almost 12 month high day to compile by johns hopkins university shows a 39 percent increase in fatalities in the past 2 weeks. current of ours infections exceed 75000000, with the amazon variant accounting for almost all infections. the u. s. leads the world in both confirmed covered $900.00 cases and related deaths. yesterday headlines, one is coming up right off the inside story. ah

. the saving lives dealing the pandemic. but tons of discarded surgical gowns mosque the medical waste up and loosing our environment. so what can we do to prevent an ecological disaster? this is inside story. ah hello and welcome to the program i'm and as of a parent m disposable masks, gloves, surgical gowns, just some of the medical items which had become part of our daily lives. since the pandemic began 2 years ago. but march of the protective personal equipment a p,

p e is made up of single use plastics that can't be recycled and have to be disposed of carefully. it won't help organisations as all that medical waste is hazardous to our health and to our environment. protective. guess syringes, vaccine vials and chemicals end up and landfills and waterways. the w h o is urging all countries to improve their medical waste management. one of the really important findings is that we found the cobra 19 has increased healthcare waste loads in facilities to up to 10 times current volumes. and we, you know, if you consider that 2 and 3 healthcare facilities in the least developed countries, didn't have to segregate or safety treat waste for the panoramic. you can just imagine how much burden this extra weight load has put on health care workers on rounding communities, especially where waste is burned with the release of dock phones and fear. and well,

as we mentioned earlier, it has been an enormous amount of medical waste. since the pandemic started, the w h o report found most of the 87000 tons of personal protective equipment ordered between march 2020 and november last year ended up as waste the environmental group oceans asia estimates. nearly 1600000000 mosque went into the oceans and 2020. the massachusetts institute of technology says the pandemic could create up to 7200 tons of medical waste every day. and a study from the university of portsmouth found mosque letter increased by 9000 percent and the 1st 7 months of the pandemic. ah, well, let's bring in august now in new delhi, is them land through jar and environmentalist, and founder of switcher, and on profit environment organization in bay root is the as a b shakita, founder of cedar, an environmental that's an environment,

an industrial engineering firm. she had developed the necessary technology to treat waste and an answer to them. we have you opt of re is a science medical journalist who's covering the pandemic extensively. a very warm welcome to all of you and mr. giles taught with new and new delhi, we've named just a few examples of the impact that we've seen. medical waste have on the environment . but how much would you say that coven 19 medical waste has had on waste management systems? so we have to understand that we base and or c biomedical based in general has short term, medium term and long term impact on ecology and therefore on human health and public health. right now in case of india, we've actually seen no, there's almost doubling or biomedical beast in certain areas. we've seen a very inefficient management of biomedical based. but that's been happening that

you only have it on $200.00 centers that actually are supposed to be changing, biomedical based in that sense. and, you know, imagine our country are almost so, you know, a 1000000000 and a half people and 200 centers to retreat obese. so it's a very huge problem that we're actually addressing the immediate corporate problem and then the very, very trying to protect ourselves. but in the process of protecting ourselves immediately, you're actually creating an intergenerational crisis and ecological crisis and a public health crisis. and that's where we've seen there are several visuals coming from different parts of the country. where there are, there are leaps and mounts off of garbage all around and garbage and waterways. and we know that in india, those mounds of garbage existed long before the pandemic began. if i can come to the abbey shocker, you know, there are really 2 issues that we're looking at here as one is the bio medical ways

that the pandemic has created. is it being disposed of correctly? and then the massive amounts of waste that has been created because of the pandemic, whether it's hazardous or not. how much of the clothing 19 medical waste, you know, that's being produced? would you say, is recyclable? well, in principle, if you follow good management practices, everything besides your main obstacle lead is that you are dealing with a huge influx, huge value and where you have hospitals that are in charge of some of this ways being produced. and the other big trunk is the regular residence i, i know 45 masks and gloves also, you know, and the been damaged. so did everybody were thinking that you could do it by touch

and it survives on surfaces. so everybody was was abusing disposable gloves. and you have the, the masks, all of these are plastic or plastic material. and in principle they already recyclable. we have developed technologies, recycle these. the problem is, can you really properly channel them to a recycling centers or not? and that is, and that is what the conversation today is about from name the job. i can see that i'm not sure if you were disagreeing, they would be shock and i will come to you in a 2nd. but just before i do, i want to bring yup, the reason here because it's been nearly 2 years since the pandemic began. it's a panoramic that you have covered extensively. why do you think that the w h o has brought out this report at this time? while the issue has been raised before by several institutions, but it's, it's not

a coincidence, i guess, because we are in many parts of the world moving from the more acute face of the all these different ways that we're very acute. all of them into what they call the endemic states. in other words, we're getting used to having the fibers around and we're no longer in that stage of, okay, we have to sorted start out in crisis and we'll, we'll take care of the garbage after that. so we have to come up with sustainable and systematic solutions now. so yeah, so coincidence, ok, and the blender, joe, if i can bring you in now, because i could tell that you wanted to say something earlier. so the thing is that, you know, be recycling is not a solution back or, you know, we want to recycle, it's about disintegrating bostic, it's more incineration. we'll have to really look at our governments and our institutions to think beyond pandemic. there was a time,

2 years ago when there was an immediate emergency response. right now we are prepared. but the unfortunate part of this preparation is that we're still not yet prepared enough or to oversee, to understand, to really manage, at least we're actually manufacturing yet another public health crisis for the future generation. and that, that vision is not really clear for our governments. we just had our budget announced a couple of, you know, just yesterday and there's no mention of biomedical be. so are we generation, and i'm going to have them picked up on a point that you're making because you know, i think that when we're talking about mosque and perhaps disposable masks or the item that we have used most during the pandemic, the w h chose says that in 2020 something like 3400000000 disposable masks were thrown out each day. a lot of these masks are made of plastic. so why are you saying that they're not recyclable? no. so we need to understand from a basic environmental policy. what is recycling?

a lot of recycling is incineration, which is basically again, toxins need to understand that reciting the worst thing when it comes to environmental what you of course, and there's no other alternative that you actually have that in your age. there's nothing else that you can actually do other than burning plastic. but my, my issue there for that of very philosophy understanding of recycling last thing, the last, what you or of, or an environmental but you make sense. and we've seen done with you talking about it. we've seen several help organizations and public health organizations talk about it that we need to really understand that it is 450 years for a mosque or a simple mass to decompose it. might take just a few seconds in an incinerator, but internet is not the best option for me to really have a whole list understanding of garbage collection. like, for example, in india, 75 percent of our budget actually goes into with transportation rather than

actually managed to show up. it will be really great understanding of garbage whenever you do have, let me put that as the other shot because he does have a very good understanding of waste management. and he, you know, develop the technology to treat waste. how do you agree that recycling masks is just not an option? i mean, are they more environmentally friendly ways to get rid of some of this waste? first of all, let's agree that intimidation is not recycling. when you burn something, you're not recycling it. recycling, you know, in the, the, the, and your model g after term is that you are putting back this material back into practice. there is a cycle you are, you are following. when you burn it when you incinerated, you just lost it. ok, no, we're not talking about the internet asian here, and we know, i mean, you can,

you can just look up what we have been doing lately in bay. do you know, we are in the midst of a severe financial crisis. and a lot of of, of people now are resorting to stealing the manhole covers this deal manhole covers and my organization since april. now we are using a facial mask disposable disposal of racial mass in a plastic matrix, and we are extruding them and we are making blast think man hole covers. so no recycling is definitely you know, if you're a technical person of someone you who understand the behavior of plastic plastic is a fantastic material that last for hundreds of years. or you need to do is put it to good use and definitely do not and generate identity. all right. and some of the

other issues that we have here is that the messaging from the w h l. it certainly has developed, if not changed and developed a lot over the course of the pandemic as they get more information and up to v. as i want to ask you, you know, there's how important are the guidelines from the w h o is classification from the w h l, for example, the w h l is saying that many facilities, many countries at the moment are classifying a 100 percent. just a waste of the coven, 19 medical waste. they are generating as hazardous, which has resulted in, you know, places like where them land, the giant in new delhi, the number of the amount of waste quadrupling. and delhi during the height of the 2nd wave in may. so how important is classification and that, that facilities, that countries follow the w h o guidelines while they're been regarded as very

important your throughout to spend m, we've seen it also from the, the medical guidelines and that day. and they have to be practical pragmatic. so if, if you make everything in the mo, given the most dangerous classification you end up with way too much, if you could, it's too low on the bar to low. a lot of workers, health workers and other workers are in danger. if i look at my own situation in the country here, we have a lot of self testing and everybody is just putting their positive tests just in the normal waist. nobody cares seems to care about it or but the people that are picking up the girl garbage are in danger there. so to say, um and so, and there has been no discussion about it, right. and, and are in are, and, and on the need for discussion, you know, there, when i was reading this report, there was some w, h o recommendations which actually surprised me as

a journalist who's tried to keep up with all the change and guidelines a, w, h, o, actually recommends, for example, a dozen to recommend the use of gloves for administering vaccines, but this appears to be common practice. again, we're so used to seeing health care workers and full p p e include in gloves. so is there enough, you know, is there more re education? that's a, that's necessary right now. yeah. a lot of countries have been slow, slowly moving into more and more use of p, p e. and now we're now it's a time for what the way chuckles racial use. and that can be, you know, the gloves is one example. so you don't need to wear gloves according to w h. whoa. when, as ministering vaccines and in many countries it's been done to get something to address and they can so abandoned their practice. but it's the same for, for other use of the b s. so that's one of the things,

one of the things that recycling, one of the things is more better a waste streams. the other thing is so iteration or use. so it's not a simple solution. is the swiss cheese again as we have with the, with the co. it's again as well with the coffee depend amick. all these different steps we need to take in order to, to solve this problem. yeah, absolutely not a simple solution. hm. lando job, you know, you work again in, in new delhi, around communities which living in proximity to poorly managed landfills, waste disposable size, which there's no shortage of what kind of guidelines or recommendations would you like to see from the w h o. now at this point, so, you know, as i said earlier as well, you know, india currently 6 months ago was actually producing almost 230 tons of corporate best b, a. d plus $600.00 tons of normal municipal base. so we, any,

we have been dealing with municipal based issues or, you know, a very fracture be experiment regime. and then we have a score would be my recommendation. got your it's really have a linkage between, between based and public. her belong to is not an organization which is only supposed to respond to corbet. it's also other diseases, so call it or call it prevention is actually leading to more and more diseases of future. and in fact, our water isn't right now. we know that in 20 years with last plastic, the amount of garbage, a plastic that could enter our oceans in 20 years, going to be 3 times small. so i think it's also a responsibility of w to, to look at not just a short term response measure, reaction correction to go good, but all you do understand it long term that how do we actually take care of public

health that we might be able to be safe from cobra by, by a p kid or a gloss which novice see it's not even needed. how do we actually solve this public health crisis for 30 years, 40 years, 50 us? because each of this garbage is going to remain in our system in our ecology, in our food chain for it please at least 40500 years. and that's what i need, and i expect w h as well to respond to a future plan, a medium term, long term plan, risk management, public health crisis management, and the other shock of what is the role of, you know, national governance in this because the w h l can of course, issue all the guidelines, but again, somewhere like lebanon, where the country is in the political, the economic crisis that it's, and it's had a waste management issue for years now. exactly. i mean, and this is not just for lebanon armor, i'm a great believer in local action. you know, when you have problems,

the best way to solve them is to rely on the common intelligence of the community and pulling resources from the community. and going to go with the decision makers and saying this is what we want. this is what we need make it happen. are always relying on on outside factors is, is just a, a way to delay the solution. or do you guys look at it from a lazy perspective for all the problems that we are seeing now our lessons for the future. and the biggest lesson that we should be learning is that we have to act locally and swiftly and to are also train a lot of out of the population. we have to make them aware that you know, this is also bad for you. this is not just good for the environment. this is bad

for our collective as we need to deal with these kinds of materials and these kinds of kids and m in a more responsible way. and local governments have the responsibility of placing the right infrastructure in place. we, we heard now that even an answer, damn, they were throwing away the set of testing kids with the, with the home, with the home garbage. this is, this is utterly unacceptable. that helped to face have what is the level of awareness and, and to dan and ina, in the netherlands and other european countries when it comes to disposing of when it comes disposing of medical ways. but also the impact that it's having on the environment. well, in, in countries like the netherlands, the real basic medical waste that's been processed from the hospitals and municipal health stations. they're fixing streets as they call it.

that's kind of okay, and that's, that's, that's under control. but there's a huge environmental issue. i was, i would argue in favor of some kind of global cleaning day for, for the whole, the whole world populations together to clean, at least the mess that we have now. because it's, people don't seem to care. i'm in the lot of people even make fun of leaving their face. masts in the weirdest places. she's more of a fun game than of the responsibility. well, that's certainly sounds like 100 need a global clean up day. the melinda jazz, one of the things i really want to cover in on this is plastic production is much more than double since the start of the pandemic. you know, how concerning is that for both the short term impacts off that on fresh water on oceans and then of course a longer term impact of nano plastics staying in the environment.

so indeed as and you know, you're talking about plastic and then we're talking about micro class and that's where we talk more, whether we incinerated or whether we, we actually make it into a bucket or a product or a plastic sheet. all of the plastic is going to remain into our environment, plastic ways to recycling. also when you downgrade into lower quality passing. that sense? i think it's, it's going to stay. it's going to be really important that it's disposed properly and that's where the role of the governments is very, very important to realize that my medical based efforts are by medical based management and dispose of the facilities needs to be improved. as i said earlier, we only have 200 of them in a, in a 1000000000 and a half people, and they're almost one quarter of our country doesn't add that facility. so therefore, we need to really have an integrated plan where they look at corona slash corporate . we look at public health and then we look at public ecology plastic will remain

in our, in our, in our lives and to our who jane, if you don't respond to it, right of it. we have a couple of minutes left in the program and i'd like to ask a very quick question to all of you to the w h. a report says that it's not an either or choice between kind of the 19 and the environment. but how do we reach that balance established? i'll start with you and david when you know this is not the 1st time the humanity experiences epidemic. you know, we've, we've been having them for the last 20 years. again and again and again. and it's always going to be the same thing unless you have the proper infrastructure in place for a pandemic. and for non pandemic related waste issues, you're gonna be facing the same problems all over again. it's, it's the role of local governments and local communities to put the pressure had to put their put their act together and start putting down that infrastructure. yup.

to visa. yeah, i would agree with that that the infrastructure is the most important thing is to stop ending up a blessed x from ending up in ocean's is, is to, to stop from sub them from, from ending up there. so that's the most important thing in the and then, and the report is, is, is pretty, an extensive in, in giving all these different other steps that need to be done, like some recycling summers. i'm a different move to new materials, more sustainable materials. so but a lot of work needs to be done all in all these fields. ok. and at them land the jap, seen a common sense civilization. we should have woken up in 2 years. it's been 2 years and still be don't realize we don't understand. and the not acting are we not giving proportionate response to this based crisis? my only expectation and suggestion is that when damage is not over and we never

know it's been around for 2 years. if you don't know how many more years it's going to continue, we need to really create systems. it is, this is a trigger warning for all of us and our respective governors to really invest in biomedical bees in invest in based treatment and in our public health. all right, mr. john. thank you very much for that and thank you to all of i guess landing in delhi z as r v shaka. and they vote. and y'all to freeze and amsterdam and thank you to for watching. you can see the program again any time by visiting our website algebra or dot com. and for further discussion to go to our facebook page, that's facebook dot com forward slash ha inside story. you can also join the conversation on twitter handle at a inside story from me, it is a problem and the entire team here, bye for now. ah

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