Journal of Preventive Medicine and Holistic Health 2023;9(1):10–14 Content available at: https://www.ipinnovative.com/open-access-journals Journal of Preventive Medicine and Holistic Health Journal homepage: https://www.jpmhh.org/ Original Research Article Bio-medical waste management practices of personal protective equipments pre and post Covid -19: A cross-sectional study James C George 1, *, Subin Babu 1 , Rejul K Raj 1 , Deny Mathew 1 1 Believers Church Medical College Hospital, Thiruvalla, Kerala, India ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 20-04-2023 Accepted 15-05-2023 Available online 07-06-2023 Keywords: PPE Incineration Recycling Covid 19 Polypropylene ABSTRACT Background: Covid-19 pandemic and the influx of polypropylene Personal Protective Equipments have created a new challenge in segregation and disposal of plastics. The general guidelines for disposal and segregation during the pre-covid period has emphasised recycling. Objective Our aim was to find out whether the PPE kits were adequately recycled during the pandemic and whether any toxic fumes were produced while incinerating them, resulting in any environmental hazard. Materials and Methods: We collected the data on Bio-medical waste disposed in the entire Kerala state from 2017 to 2022. It was divided into pre-covid and covid-relaxation period. The amount of biomedical waste recycled and incinerated were measured and compared. The amount of new cases and its correlation to recycling and incineration was done. The stack emission data during pre-covid and covid-relaxation period was collected and compared. Results: Our results showed that during the covid-relaxation years there was a significant increase in incineration as compared to the pre-covid years. The incineration was much more when compared to recycling. Fortunately the stack emission didn’t show any toxic fumes and environmental hazards. Conclusion: We concluded that recycling of PPE was not adequate during covid-19 pandemic. Health care system should take more steps to be compliant with national guidelines. Awareness has to be made to decrease in the use of these disposable materials and shift to more eco-friendly materials or reusable materials. This is an Open Access (OA) journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. For reprints contact: reprint@ipinnovative.com 1. Introduction The combination of textile technology and medical sciences led to the emergence of a new field called medical textiles or healthcare textiles. They have contributed immensely towards healthcare hygiene and personal protection, especially in the last 2 years of the Covid-19 pandemic. Though many natural and synthetic materials are utilized, polypropylene and polyester are the most widely used for manufacturing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), surgical gowns, and drapes. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: drjamescgeorge@gmail.com (J. C. George). During the Covid -19 pandemic, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) of India issued guidelines for collection and disposal of medical textile waste according to the biomedical waste (BMW) management rule 2016. 1 This rule has been updated to promote disinfection and recycling of these waste products to the best possible extent. Polypropylene and polyester, though biologically inert and non-toxic, when burned will produce water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) as major products and aliphatic and aromatic toxic hydrocarbons as minor products. 2 Our aim was to find out whether medical textiles especially Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) were recycled adequately during Covid-19 pandemic. The stack emission sample data https://doi.org/10.18231/j.jpmhh.2023.004 2454-6704/© 2023 Innovative Publication, All rights reserved. 10