Readers,
I’ve never cared for flying. I mean, I tolerate it well enough, but the dry, recirculated air, the lack of any sort of leg room, and the constant jockeying for armrest position isn’t high on my list of enjoyable activities. As if those minor inconveniences and generally miserable conditions weren’t bad enough, now I can add the possibility of contracting Ebola to the list of air travel agonies.
Granted, the odds of actually contracting Ebola are still astronomically low in the United States, but those odds are officially higher than they were several months ago, and that’s less than ideal.
The recent outbreak of Ebola does have some fairly serious ramifications for the waste industry. Recent estimates found that a single Ebola patient in the United States can generate eight 55-gallon barrels of medical waste each day. In some states, safely disposing of that enormous amount of waste safely and legally is posing a problem.
The U.S. Center for Disease Control recommends burning the contaminated medical waste, but some states (like environmentally-minded California), have blanket bans on the incineration of medical waste. That leaves those states in a bind when it comes to disposal, and exactly how they’re going to safely get rid of contaminated medical waste is an open question still being addressed by legislators.
Some states have contemplated trucking the waste over state lines to be incinerated where such burning is not prohibited by law. To me, that’s a scarier option than granting temporary exemptions to the incineration bans. In my opinion, the additional pollution is easier to remedy and less potentially disastrous than tossing the contaminated medical waste into a semi-truck and hoping that it arrives at an incineration facility without incident.
So stay tuned for next month’s cover story, where author Mike Breslin will explore the contaminated medical waste problem in-depth. In the meantime, if you stay out of the hot zones, and don’t volunteer to head overseas to treat Ebola patients, you’re probably going to be just fine.
But if you see a guy on your next flight in a hazmat suit, make sure to stop me and say hello. I always enjoy meeting our readers.
Until next month,
Dave Fournier, Jr.
American Recycler
Published in the November 2014 Edition of American Recycler News
