BJP's city unit chief Ashish Shelar made the suggestion during a meeting in which he also discussed a separate garbage collection for pads in societies across the city
At a time when Mumbai is struggling with poor infrastructure, pothole-ridden roads and crumbling structures, the BJP city unit chief has come up with a unique suggestion to improve the condition of the city: Separate sanitary napkins from regular waste.
Sanitised talk: Ashish Shelar, Mumbai chief for the BJP, said that garbage disposal was of utmost importance and that women should segregate their “medical” waste from regular waste
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At a meeting held at the Indian Merchants’ Chamber, Ashish Shelar, the BJP’s city chief, spoke of ways to develop the city and how technology played an important role in achieving that aim.
Ashish Shelar, BJP city chief
Phone: 022-24183141/3290
E-mail: ashish.shelar@yahoo.com
While addressing the gathering, Shelar spoke of how segregation of waste was of utmost importance. He said, “Sanitary pads are a type of medical waste and shouldn’t be mixed with regular waste. Societies should have a separate sanitary pad collection system and the civic body should treat this waste.”
He addedthat societies, chawls and slums should have a place where used pads should be thrown and not mixed with regular waste. The suggestion comes at a time when the city’s dry and wet waste segregation model has only seen 15 per cent success in 2012 owing to the difficulty in implementing the plan on a large scale. Additionally, the city doesn’t have a medical waste segregation model for homes.
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But even as Mumbaikars are left struggling to devise ways to implement Shelar’s idea, doctors are glad that the topic of waste segregation was discussed. Dr Arun Bamne, executive health officer of the BMC, said, “Used sanitary pads are not bio-medical waste but it should be segregated as it’s not good to mix it with regular waste.”
However, Bamne also claimed that there’s no reason for him to say that used sanitary pads if mixed with regular waste could lead to any health problems.
Dr Y S Nandanwar, head of Sion hospital’s gynaecology department, also claims that sanitary pads do not come under medical waste as women commonly use it. “Only in cases where post-operation or any complication a sanitary pad is made using cotton and cloth in the hospital premises do they throw it along with medical waste.
Nor are sanitary pads hazardous to the environment as most Indian women use homemade or biodegradable sanitary pads. However, it should be decomposed separately as there are chances that infections could spread through sanitary napkins if the woman is infected.”
Shelar also talked about technology to treat sewer water and turn it into drinking water. u00a0
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