There is an urgent need to explore other ways of managing sanitary waste
Sanitary waste disposal is emerging as an alarming problem in India. The plastic used in disposable sanitary napkins is non-biodegradable and can lead to short-term and long-term health and environmental hazards.
Unorganised and informal municipal solid waste management, including poor community collection, low source segregation levels and insufficient disposal and transportation networks in the cities and villages, worsen the crisis.
In addition, one major issue associated with sanitary waste has always been its categorisation, ie, whether it is biomedical or plastic waste. Soiled napkins and other types of sanitary waste are considered household waste according to the Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules, 2016. Such waste needs to be disposed of after segregating them into biodegradable and non-biodegradable components.
However, items contaminated with blood and body fluids, including sanitary pads, are bio-medical waste and should be incinerated, autoclaved or microwaved to destroy pathogens, notes the Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules (BWM), 2016. So, there is apparent overlapping of these two regulations which makes it even more complicated to manage sanitary pads scientifically.
It is important to note that soiled sanitary pad management has not been given adequate attention due to societal and cultural taboos as well as limited infrastructure for segregation, collection, transportation and scientific disposal of sanitary waste, including disposable sanitary napkins.
Even though it fits squarely within the scope of waste management, it must be treated with adequate importance, with policy and implementation mandates.
In terms of its management, very few cities across the country efficiently manage the segregation, collection, transportation and final disposal of sanitary waste in their jurisdiction. Sanitary waste management follows the following management chain: Source segregation, efficient collection and transportation and proper waste treatment.
The Red Dot campaign was started in 2016 with the goal of collecting sanitary waste separately to help waste pickers avert health hazards due to mishandled sanitary waste. This Information, Education and Communication (IEC) helped understand citizens’ approach towards waste segregation.
In the same year, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), in support, directed citizens to give their sanitary waste separately as per SWM Rules 2016. IEC collaterals were circulated among the citizens for awareness purposes. Standees were displayed at the entry gate of each ward office.
Posters used during the Red Dot campaign. Source: SWACH Pune.
During the initial phase, the SWaCH members (women waste-pickers) and PMC field staff were trained and educated on the concept of source segregation and the safe handling of sanitary waste.
Separate bags were given for collecting and transferring sanitary waste at feeder points. Standard operating procedures (SOP) for handling sanitary waste were explained. This gave confidence to members/labours to undertake awareness among citizens for following Red Dot Campaign. According to the Pune Municipal Corporation, capacity building of approximately 72 per cent of the waste pickers is completed, remaining will be covered in phase II of the campaign. Phase II has been delayed due to the second wave of COVID-19.
Trained waste pickers conducted awareness programmes. They went door to door with IEC collaterals and demonstrated how to wrap and mark the sanitary waste before handing it over. Capacity development for labours handling sanitary waste was also done.
Door-to-door training by waste pickers. Photo: Richa Singh/CSE.
In August 2021, the Municipal Council adopted a communication strategy in Karad and began a comprehensive campaign to raise awareness among the citizens. IEC activities and capacity-building programmes educated people about the health and environmental consequences of improper sanitary waste management and mixing it with the rest of municipal solid waste.
IEC campaign strategy: Source: Karad Municipal Council.
Urban Local Bodies (ULB) need to redesign the collection vehicle to ensure the efficient collection and transportation of segregated sanitary waste. It should have separate compartments for storing soiled napkins and other sanitary wastes. For example, the collection vehicle in Indore city has six compartments, including one dedicated yellow compartment for storing household sanitary waste. Similarly, Bhopal has four compartments — for dry, wet, domestic hazardous and sanitary waste — in the waste collection vehicle.
In Pune, workers collect waste from door to door and bring it to a feeder point; every feeder point is operated by five-seven workers. They bring waste from 100-150 households each; it then gets collected by a PMC collection vehicle. PMC vehicle transports the waste to the transfer station. Sanitary waste is then transferred into a red container which is then carried to the processing facility.
Thermal technology: For bio-medical health waste, the WHO recommends that incinerators reach a temperature of at least 1,000 °C based on Indian standards. There are 207 operational common biomedical waste treatment facilities (CBWTF) in India, with a total incineration capacity of 621 tonnes per day.
In 2001, the Karad Hospital Association was given a one-acre stretch of land to build and commission a 600 kg/day biomedical treatment facility. As a result, the Karad Municipal Corporation signed an agreement with Karad Hospital Association to allow sanitary waste collected by ULBs to be processed at the existing biomedical facility at no expense to the ULB.
The Karad Hospital Association operates and maintains an integrated centralized biomedical and sanitary waste facility. It is a one-of-a-kind project in which a hospital organisation has stepped up, partnered with an ULB, and demonstrated how to handle sanitary waste properly.
Mechanical treatment: An Italian company developed a breakthrough recycling technology that can recycle used absorbent hygiene products like baby diapers, fem care and adult incontinence to create new products and materials of added value. The technology is installed and operational at an industrial scale at Spresiano, northern Italy. It can process 10,000 tonnes of used absorbent hygiene products every year which corresponds to serving around a million people. The plant is unique and the first of its kind in the world.
The technology efficiently breaks down sanitary waste into plastic, cellulose and super-absorbent polymer. This material can be used for making plastic bottle caps and viscose clothing.
General schematic of the Sanitary waste processing machine. Source: Karad Municipal Corporation.
The sanitary waste processing plant was installed in 2019, but due to COVID-19 and the contractual disparity of contractor with PMC, complete installation and commissioning will take another six months. The plant is proposed to have a capacity of 10 TPD sanitary waste.
While a few Indian cities are able to manage the sanitary waste generated in their jurisdiction by adopting source segregation, efficient collection and transportation and scientific disposal, many the cities and rural areas are still struggling to segregate sanitary waste. In addition, there is a lack of infrastructure required to ensure scientific treatment. India has only 207 operational CBWTFs, with a total incineration capacity of 621 tonnes per day.
There is an urgent need to explore other ways of managing sanitary waste. The possibilities of policies like extended producer responsibility (EPR) should be explored considering the fact that disposable sanitary pads are 90 per cent plastics. Currently, there is no viable technology for recycling disposable sanitary napkins on a large scale in India.
Also, the disposal and transportation costs are extremely high. A few novel recycling initiatives, such as Pad Care Labs Limited which is based on the mechano-chemical treatment and recycling of soiled sanitary pads, are available. Mechanisms to promote such novel technologies and ERP policy interventions are required to ensure sustainable management of sanitary pads and other types of sanitary waste.
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