Burn Baby Burn!

They usually just burn placentas... not the babies.  Ok, bad joke.  Today was AWESOME.  I got to tour a medical waste incinerator in INDIA, and it was surprisingly clean and efficient.  I mean, I was expecting something out of a horror movie, but it was a legitimately well-run facility that seemed to be a decent place to work.  It apparently meets US standards for effluent and emissions as well.  Nice work, Pondicherry.  You have surprised me today.

The other element that was very interesting (I actually kind of like it, though it will likely make my American counterparts squeamish) is that about 10% of the biomedical waste is actually sold on the resale/recycling market.  Most of the 5-6000kg of incoming waste (by mass) is cotton and body parts - this is all incinerated.  The plastics and sharps are sorted out, autoclaved, and shredded.  THIS is actually sold back into India's scrap market.  The facility was built in 2011 to service all (nearly) 150 medical facilities and clinics in Puducherry state, and it's managed by a very nice industrial engineer.

Again, congrats.  This has been most impressive.