City students suggest ways to manage biomedical waste

A group of students from the City has conducted research on managing biomedical waste. It has also put forth recommendations to deal with biomedical waste effectively. 

As a part of the study, ten students — Amrutha, Raja, Tejas, Manasa, Karthick, Yashaswaini, John, Vishal, Shakti and Srushti — from Vishwas Helpline Charitable Trust, an orphanage in JP Nagar, visited Maridi Eco Industries, a medical waste disposal company at Kanakapura on January 22. 

They prepared a report based on their observations and discussions with waste management experts, pourakarmikas and hospitals. 

The research conducted by the students was a part of the ‘Trash Trek’ challenge conducted by First Lego League (FLL 2016), organised by Caterpillar India Pvt Ltd and mentored by The Perfect Raaga Charitable Trust. 

Their presentation with their observations and inspiring ideas on dealing with biomedical waste impressed the FLL judges and won them the ‘Core Values’ award, a week after the visit.

During their visits, the students found that many hospitals were not disposing the waste as per the colour-coded system. 

“While pathological waste should be disposed in yellow bags, plastic waste should be dumped in blue bags, glass bottles in white bags and needles without syringes, surgical instruments in black cans. But these rules are hardly followed. 

“When we enquired with Maridi Eco Industries, they said that the hospitals or clinics have to shell out money for handing over segregated waste and hence, some of them avoid it,” said Tejas and Amrutha, who were part of the research team. 

Raja, a class 10 student, said since biomedical waste is non-recyclable, it is being burnt with diesel and to minimise the usage of fuel, he has come up with a solution. 

He said, “The smoke coming out of the chimneys installed in most biomedical waste disposal companies can be turned into mechanical energy and that in turn into electrical energy. The electrical energy can be used for burning the waste.”

Working modelMadhavi, an engineering student from the trust, plans to bring out a working model based on Raja’s idea. 

The trust was among the three schools selected from the City for the challenge that is conducted worldwide. 

As a part of the ‘Trash Trek’ challenge, the students also developed a robotic game based on biomedical waste and its disposal. 

They now plan to approach the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and biomedical waste disposal companies with their research study and suggestions on effective waste disposal.