The figure was shown from the Alice Springs regional waste management centre report for October.

The deceased pet you asked the vet to dispose of will wind up buried in landfill, in most areas throughout the country, and Alice Springs is not any different.

“It’s a combination of horses, dogs, cats, pigs, some other animal that dies,” said Alice Springs council technical services manager Greg Buxton. “Road kill, kangaroos and the rangers select them up, and you’ve got to dispose of them someplace hygienic. So we put them in the rear of landfill.”

The center is on track to surpass last year’s total, with 3.7 tonnes deposited at the first quarter of this year.

Mr Buxton said most regional councils throughout the country dispose of dead animals in landfill.

“In the bigger cities they’ve an incinerator kind setting where they cremate themwhereas we don’t have an incinerator here,” he said.

by: http://www.news.com.au/national/northern-territory/central-australias-animal-graveyard/story-fnn3gfdo-1227123002725

The first of several public meetings regarding the disposal of over 15 million pounds of M6 propellant in Camp Minden attracted close to 150 concerned officials and citizens into the Minden Civic Center Thursday night.

There, they heard the arrangement reached between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army, which will finance the $28.5 million tidy from the illegally stored substance left by Explo Systems, Inc., predicts strictly for open air burning.

“Local contractors, the Maddens, made a device,” Webster Parish Sheriff Gary Sexton, that set up the meeting, stated. “For some reason, that device isn’t being considered in this clean up process.”

“We’re disappointed,” James Madden, proprietor of Madden Contracting, stated. Madden’s son, David spent time and money researching and building a prototype which would’ve allowed closed incineration of the product. “We considered we built a better mousetrap.”

But Madden may not be out of it yet. The Army must first design a bid package and undergo a procedure required by legislation to find a company to have the job.

“The Maddens can throw at a bid on the open menu procedure,” Sexton said. “They have the right to come in and I think they can do this.”

State Sen. Robert Adley stated while discussion regarding responsibility was taking place, the Maddens developed a plan to take care of this. Adley, along with others in the local delegation, attended a demo of the incinerator in Camp Minden past January. “We’re not professionals, but under legislation, by their interpretation, the EPA cannot use that procedure. I regret this, but it’s where we’re in this stage of the game.”

Adley stated that under existing legislation, the Louisiana Military Department and Maj. Gen. Glenn H. Curtis are all required to take bids from whoever supplies you.

“In the end of the afternoon he (Curtis) could sit down and decide who’s qualified, that has the experience and if they have the financial backing to get it done,” Adley said. “All of these things are going to be taken into consideration. It’d be fantastic if it was a person who, when they finish, will be sitting here breathing this air .”

David Madden seemed resigned to the EPA’s choice after attending an informal meeting with officials earlier in the afternoon.

“I have studied this procedure andyes, I did work for an incinerator,” he said. “I met with EPA officials and other experts not associated with the EPA, and they’re going down the right path with the open trays.”

Madden stated that his change of heart on the haste with which the disposal must take place to avoid more degradation of the product, which makes it increasingly dangerous.

“It’s important this get started the first quarter of next year,” he said. “I’ve looked in the air quality plumes (from open tray burning). Just 10 percent of this fallout will visit Doyline. There’s an equivalent amount heading toward Bossier and going north. Our business is about a mile and a half since east. We’re going to find some of this.”

“In my site and in my office, we’ll keep all the completely upgraded materials,” Reynolds said. “We’re going to keep (the people ) educated with everything that comes out from that point forward.”

Sexton emphasized the importance of the people’s help.

“Help us calm the fears of those people in the community about what we do not understand will happen with the destruction of the M6 propellant,” he said. “We may all agree on things that may happen, but we do not need to chat about what we need to worry about. The men and women that are going to be responsible — whoever the contractor is — the people which are going to be disposing of this product, keep them in your prayers because something could happen to the men and women that are responsible for going out there and opening those bunkers, choosing this product up, moving it and destroying it where we could live in a safer neighborhood.”

The upcoming public meeting is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 16. Time and location have not been determined.

“Help us calm the fears of the people in the community about what we don’t know is going to happen with the destruction of the M6 propellant,” he said. “We may all speculate on things that may happen, but we don’t need to talk about what we have to worry about. The people who are going to be responsible – whoever the contractor is – the people that are going to be disposing of this product, keep them in your prayers because something could happen to the people who are responsible for going out there and opening those bunkers, picking this product up, moving it and destroying it where we can live in a safer community.”

The next public meeting is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 16. Time and location have not been decided.

by: http://press-herald.com/open-tray-burning-wins-out-over-closed-incinerator-for-m6-propellant-at-camp-minden/

Patients for this debilitating virus create 440 gallons of medical waste every day, including instruments, dresses, gloves, body fluids, sheets, mattresses and much more. That is a substantial number of medical waste in any circumstance, but it is particularly daunting in this case because it ought to be disposed of extremely carefully, to avoid the chance of spreading infection. What do you do with a problem such as Ebola waste? Because you don’t want to toss it in the garbage.

Somewhat surprisingly, states Bausch, the United States actually faces bigger problems in regards to safely disposing of Ebola waste, which can be only burned in large pits in Africa:”In the United States, naturally, we’re somewhat beholden to higher tech solutions, which in some ways are a tiny bit more problematic in terms of handling all that waste, and we need autoclaves or incinerators that can handle that type of thing. It’s not the actual inactivation that’s particularly difficult; it is just the process of finding the waste out of, of course, that the frontline of care and interaction with the patients safely to the location where it can be incinerated or autoclaved.”

The problem in the United States is ironically compounded by the increased accessibility to healthcare, and the high quality of healthcare services, available. In the United States, patients have been treated by medical teams with access to a massive volume of equipment they use for protection, including masks, gowns, booties, and gloves, along with sanitizers and other tools. Moreover, patients get extensive medical interventions that create waste such as tubing, needles, medical tape, empty IV bags, and much more. The care that has helped the majority of the number of Ebola patients in the United States conquer the disease has contributed to the huge quantity of waste generated, highlighting a critical hole in U.S. medical infrastructure — although African American hospitals may have lacked the staff and supplies required to provide aid to Ebola patients, they are at least prepared to handle the waste.

The CDC just issued guidelines to help clinicians and administrators decide upon how to handle Ebola squander, but The New York Times notes that lots of facilities do not have the autoclave, and incinerator, capacity to handle medical waste on this scale. Some countries prohibit the burning of medical waste entirely, or have barred incineration of Ebola waste, leading to the transport of waste across state boundaries to facilities that can handle it, which introduces its own dangers; with every mile added to transport, there is a greater danger of spreading disease to previously unexposed communities.

Astonishingly, defenders of burning the garbage come in surprising corners. When you are dealing with pathogenic and biological hazards, occasionally the safest thing to do is combustion.” Fears about Ebola, rather than real ecological or public health concerns, are forcing the decision to push incineration of ebola squander in several areas, but the United States will have to face reality: The mounting waste that accumulates in facilities where Ebola patients get treatments has to be disposed of safely, safely and immediately.

The argument in defense of incineration can be bolstered by the fact that medical waste companies specialize in high-efficiency incineration with equipment designed to minimize and trap byproducts of combustion, reducing overall pollution considerably. Fears about Ebola, rather than genuine environmental or public health concerns, are driving the decision to push against incineration of ebola waste in many regions, but eventually, the United States is going to have to face facts: The mounting waste that accumulates in facilities where Ebola patients receive treatments needs to be disposed of safely, and promptly.

by: http://www.care2.com/causes/an-unexpected-ebola-infrastructure-problem-waste.html