Morristown, New Jersey-based Covanta is partnering with Indiana testing sites to collect waste and dispose of it at the company’s Indianapolis incineration plant, reports the Indianapolis Star.
“It is interesting how the pandemic has shifted or brought to light a value that Covanta provides in terms of destroying pathogenic materials or potentially contaminated medical waste,” says Allyson Mitchell, executive director of the Indiana Recycling Coalition.
Waste-to-energy facilities, like Covanta’s Indianapolis site, are one of the safest ways to get rid of these types of materials during a pandemic, according to Eugene Tseng, a national expert in environmental sustainability and infrastructure. They have a role to play in a successful integrated waste system, he added, one that includes recycling.
The Indianapolis facility isn’t currently accepting medical waste from hospitals, as it requires a specific medical disposal permit. The company also does not have plans to seek that permit at this time, Covanta spokesman James Regan said.
But, as retail pharmacies look to open testing sites across Indiana as the state looks to increase its testing capacity, Regan said Covanta is working with those places to dispose of their waste.
CVS Health, for example, announced that it will open 21 testing sites across the state, including 14 in Indianapolis. Covanta will collect material from these sites, such as the packaging or personal protective equipment used by the pharmacist or technician.
“For us, the processing of the testing material makes sense and something our customers were looking for as a precautionary measure,” Regan says.
Acting as a safer and more sustainable way to dispose of the medical material, the waste is processed at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which destroys any incidental strains of the virus in the waste stream while also producing energy.
Regan says it’s too early to know how much of this waste the Indianapolis facility will be accepting, since these partnerships are just now starting. But as testing ramps up, he says it will be from dozens of retail pharmacies.
“The biggest takeaway for us is that the essential service of these plants is heightened,” Regan says. “We are not just getting rid of the virus, but we are producing important energy around the clock.”