The provincial government of Sarangani will use the innovative and environment-friendly Pyroclave technology to treat medical waste and help stop the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the province, an environment official said.

Pyroclave, a non-incineration technology developed by the Davao City-based RAD Green Solutions, processes medical waste using pyrolysis—the process of decomposing organic material using extreme heat in the absence of oxygen, according to Rolando Tuballes, Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (Penro) chief, citing the product’s briefer.

Compared to incineration or burning, which requires oxygen and brings about harmful byproducts, pyrolysis produces fewer byproducts and produces less carbon dioxide, Tuballes said.

He said Sarangani would be the eighth local government unit in the country to make use of the technology in treating medical wastes.

“It is urgent that we start the full commissioning of the Pyroclave technology to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in contaminated medical wastes,” he said.

He said the province had been fast-tracking the construction of a temporary disposal site in the provincial capital of Alabel, where the province would finally dispose of the Pyroclave-treated medical wastes.

“We already have the Pyroclave technology installed and ready to be used but we don’t have yet the disposal site,” he said.

“(That’s why), we are fast-tracking the construction of the temporary disposal site so we can start to treat medical wastes using such technology,” he said in a phone interview with the Inquirer.

As one of the top non-incineration technologies available in the market, Pyroclave has been used to specifically treat infectious, pathological, and pharmaceutical wastes as well as biomedical materials like syringes and needles.

Tuballes said the Department of Health (DOH) allowed the provincial government to establish a temporary disposal facility for treated products in Alabel town to be used for a maximum of two years.

The province has already completed the environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Sarangani Medical Waste Treatment Facility (SMWTF). Its final version will be submitted to the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) next week, Tuballes said.

The EIS is a requirement for the issuance of the environmental compliance certificate, a clearance that will allow the province to operate the SMWTF.

Aside from the P19.3 million Pyroclave technology, Tuballes said the SMWTF’s components include the construction of a sanitary landfill and wastewater facility in the province. The construction of the province’s 2.8-hectare Category 3 sanitary landfill would be completed in the next two years, just in time for the temporary disposal site to exhaust its allotted time.

The SMWTF will exclusively accept toxic and hazardous wastes from medical and industrial institutions, and not domestic or non-toxic wastes, as the latter falls under the responsibility of municipal government units, Tuballes said.

Text by Bong Sarmiento
Photo by Mufid Majnun on Unsplash