Handling and treatment strategies of biomedical wastes and biosolids contaminated with SARS-CoV-2 in waste environment

The biomedical waste (BW) generated by hospitals and other health care facilities such as quarantine homes and isolation wards are exponentially increasing amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This has evoked a major challenge for governments worldwide to cope with the increasing demands of waste disposal with limited facilities. Each and every hospital has its own way of managing the waste generated, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an intense pressure on health care workers to employ speedy and effective management techniques for the disposal of highly contagious SARS-CoV-2-contaminated BW. The study of survival rates of SARS-CoV-2 on various surfaces such as plastics (2–3 days), clothes (7 days), and wood (<24 h) has helped to deploy various disinfection processes such as treatment of contaminated surfaces with 70% ethanol and 0.05% sodium hypochlorite. Additionally, various effective waste processing procedures such as incineration and autoclaving for the disposal of infected masks, personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, towels, and tissues have been recommended. This chapter is focused on the detailed discussion on the characteristics and classification of wastes generated from health care sectors and management strategies with an emphasis on COVID-19.