I don’t recall seeing the coronavirus listed in any predictions for garbage and recycling in 2020. Nor, I suspect, did any solid waste plans have contingencies for managing garbage and recycling in a pandemic. After all, we have so little experience in this area. As I write this, no one really knows when this will be over. We are trying to figure out how to react, what changes to make in our programs and what […]

Garbage contaminated with bodily fluids or other infectious materials is becoming a bigger concern for hospitals as they brace for a surge in patients sick with COVID-19 in the US. Patients and health care workers are quickly going through medical supplies and disposable personal protective equipment, like masks. Eventually all that used gear piles up as medical waste that needs to be safely discarded. In Wuhan, where the novel coronavirus first emerged, officials didn’t just […]

The first case of the COVID-19 virus in the U.S. was diagnosed on Jan. 20. By March 26, the United States became the epicenter of the pandemic as domestic cases surpassed those in China and Italy for the first time. In the process, the steady uptick of domestic infections set in motion the nationwide closure of countless businesses and schools, cancelation of travel, and shelter in place orders.   As life has abruptly been put […]