Resident angered by waste dumped on verge

A GLENASHLEY resident is fuming after a number of items, some of which are alleged to be medical waste, were dumped on his verge. Selva Mudaly, who lives on Newport Avenue, said the items were dumped between Sunday evening and Monday morning last week. He was shocked to find among the rubbish heap, two syringes, a lock of shaved pet hair, a catheter and soiled newspaper.

Mudaly also found a number of bills and paperwork, which pointed to the Glenashley Veterinary Clinic. The local resident is adamant the rubbish dumped should be classified as ‘medical waste’; however, the veterinary clinic says the rubbish dumped on the property is nothing more than general waste.

According to the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), waste is classified as general or hazardous waste according to the risk it poses. Any generator of waste has a ‘duty of care’ to society to handle, store, transport or dispose of waste in an environmentally-sound way.

This is referred to as the ‘cradle-to-grave’ responsibility, since it lasts throughout the whole process of waste disposal.

They can’t dodge this 

“Having worked in the environmental health department, this is in direct contravention to the act. The law states that the generator of the waste is responsible for it, even though a medical waste disposal company transports the items to an incinerator. I’m shocked that the clinic is not taking responsibility for this mess, it is an embarrassment. They can’t dodge this, and this is certainly not how they should be operating,” Mudaly said.

However, Mark McReynolds, co-owner and one of the vets at the clinic, disputes the definition.

This is general waste, not medical 

“Firstly the waste is not medical waste but is general waste. There were only two syringes in the entire bag of waste and these syringes had only ever been used to feed a critically-ill puppy and are therefore not medical waste. The syringes would have had nothing more than water, food or milk in them. The fact that a feeding tube was found with the syringes in the waste confirms this. The syringes were never used to give any medication or to collect any blood samples or for anything else other than giving food and water.

“Everything else in the waste is quite clearly general waste and not medical waste. Fur and a used bandage are considered to be general waste provided they do not have blood or any other organic material on them. There were no needles, tissue, organs, blood samples or anything else that could be considered medical waste. Other than the two syringes and the feeding tube, everything else in the waste would be generated by any normal household with pets.

“Our general waste is collected by the municipality (together with everyone else in the street’s general waste) from wheelie bins which are placed on our verge on the morning that they are to be collected. Prior to being put out for collection they are kept behind a locked gate on our property,” he said.

McReynolds said he had no idea how the rubbish ended up on Mudaly’s verge and apologised to the resident.

“We can only assume that the bag was taken from our wheelie bins before being collected by the municipality and was then emptied on Mr Mudaly’s verge and rummaged through by someone hoping to find something of value in the rubbish. As soon as we were made aware that one of our rubbish bags had been dumped on Mr Mudaly’s verge we arranged for it to be cleaned up by the company that handles the collection of our medical waste,” McReynolds said.

“We can only assume that the bag was taken from our wheelie bins before being collected by the municipality and was then emptied on Mr Mudaly’s verge and rummaged through by someone hoping to find something of value in the rubbish. As soon as we were made aware that one of our rubbish bags had been dumped on Mr Mudaly’s verge we arranged for it to be cleaned up by the company that handle the collection of our medical waste,” he said.

Follow up inspection by health department 

Dave Bradshaw, a senior environmental health practitioner for the eThekwini Municpality, who was also on scene when the items were discovered said an investigation was under way to trace who was responsible.

“At this point we are waiting for an expert opinion to determine whether particular components of the rubbish can be accurately classified as medical waste. The law does state any generator of medical waste is responsible for it from cradle to grave. Therefore, pharmacies, vets, dentists, doctors, animal hospitals, hospitals, old age homes and other premises that generate Health Care Risk Waste have a duty to handle such waste in a responsible manner.

“By law they must send such waste to a legalised treatment facility and keep accurate records of all such waste removed from their premises. It is important therefore that every practice has a standard operating procedure for disposal of this waste. Also, all business premises have to secure all their waste prior to collection by either council or private contractors. A follow-up inspection has already been conducted at the Veterinary clinic to ensure that there is no recurrence of this unacceptable incident. We have received full cooperation from the clinic in this regard,” Bradshaw said.