How can countries design effective COVID-19 medical waste management strategies and action plans?
"Underlying each of these key questions for today is embedded the notion of sustaining a medical waste management approach that is not a one-off response to a current crisis, but a stable systematic and maintained approach that works for communities, which takes on board and respects the unique character of communities worldwide." –Monika MacDevette, Chief of the Chemicals & Health Branch Economy Division at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
"If we look at whats happening with the response in general, the countries that following science and evidence are the ones that seem to be doing best... Context-specific solutions, starting with an assessment of what’s existing in a city or health facility and building on those existing systems, looking for reusable materials if we can." –Kate Medlicott, Team Leader of the Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Health Unit, World Health Organization (WHO)
How can the international community support developing countries to manage COVID-19 medical waste?
"We develop protocols and guidelines that are also very flexible for countries at various levels of development... that don’t just speak to formal systems (or European, North American or Australasian systems), but they’re systems and strategies that are able to speak to very different waste management systems." –Donovan Storey, Deputy Director and Urban Lead of Green Cities at the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI)
"We need to continue working together… Working with communities and governments needs to continue. We need to engage other partners - partners in education and of course grassroots organisations are very important today. In many developing countries grassroots organization are involved in waste management." –Rolph Payet, Executive Secretary of the Basel Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS) and Former Minister for Environment and Energy of the Seychelles
"If I’ve got one message here on medical waste management, it is that we mustn’t overreact, and that we mustn’t panic about this. The systems that we need to deal with COVID are exactly the same systems that we needed last year." –Ruth Stringer, International Science and Policy Coordinator of Health Care Without Harm
How can we avoid medical waste crises in the future?
"The greatest challenge we have is preventing the single-use plastics from polluting the environment… if we do not go in with durable plastics which can be disinfected and reused several times – if we don’t solve that problem – we’re going to create a massive problem in the future with all the plastics… it is very important to start now to prevent a future plastic explosion problem." –Frank Pinto, Senior Consultant on Chemicals and Energy Efficiency to the Director of the Montreal Protocol and Chemicals Team, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
"There’s a lot of pressure now on national governments to really put in place sound and robust frameworks for the management of waste. For me that is excellent news because it is becoming national priority, it’s becoming a political priority. Governments are taking action, which hopefully will create these kind of movement and motivation for us to look at waste in a totally different way." –Rolph Payet, Executive Secretary of the Basel Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS) and Former Minister for Environment and Energy of the Seychelles
"What we really need to be focusing on is taking the opportunity, if we can call it that, of the COVID epidemic to really accelerate what we know already needs to be done." –Kate Medlicott, Team Leader of the Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Health Unit, World Health Organization (WHO)
What are the opportunities for entrepreneurs and small businesses in sustainable medical waste management?
"We need maintenance engineers, because keeping the equipment going is absolutely vital.. we need cleaners themselves to be properly trained and put in place, and we need local experts... Another thing we’re learning during COVID is to do more remote monitoring. Let’s get that in place, a high-tech thing where we can help." –Ruth Stringer, International Science and Policy Coordinator of Health Care Without Harm
"We need to start investing more effectively in our waste management systems. Investing in decentralized systems that are closer to people’s households… and can easily break down in times of crisis. That really feeds into the whole resilience angle… we need to really start looking into infrastructure investment from development banks." –Donovan Storey, Deputy Director and Urban Lead of Green Cities at the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI)
"What we need to do is make sure we have a continuity of existing services and build back better with more resilient services. There’s a huge amount of opportunity for small businesses and entrepreneurs along the waste chain, from collection to treatment and reuse. I wanted to put a word of caution here, because I think we need to be careful that small businesses and entrepreneurs don’t take the opportunity to exploit(?) and provide services that aren’t necessary." –Kate Medlicott, Team Leader of the Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Health Unit, World Health Organization (WHO)
Recording
Speakers
Kate Medlicott, Team Leader of the Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Health Unit, World Health Organization (WHO)
Rolph Payet, Executive Secretary of the Basel Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS) and Former Minister for Environment and Energy of the Seychelles
Frank Pinto, Senior Consultant on Chemicals and Energy Efficiency to the Director of the Montreal Protocol and Chemicals Team, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Donovan Storey, Deputy Director and Urban Lead of Green Cities at the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI)
Ruth Stringer, International Science and Policy Coordinator of Health Care Without Harm
Moderated by: Monika MacDevette, Chief of the Chemicals & Health Branch Economy Division at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)