Bio-medical waste is generated by hospitals and dumped with Municipal garbage. As per a recent study conducted by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) states that 50 percent of the bio medical waste is treated and the rest half is dumped untreated with Municipal garbage.

Government has set up few waste management rules which need to be followed by all the hospitals in the country but around 15000 hospitals have been served a notices for acting as defaulters of these rules.

People comment on the availability of the radioactive Cobalt-60 found in Delhi, hoping that it comes from hospital waste. Cobalt 60 was found in a scrap yard located in Mayapuri has affected around 6 people working there, presently who are struggling for their lives.

The Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow has submitted its CPCB assessment report in February and this report was commissioned by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Reports indicated that half of the bio medical waste generated in the country is treated as per the waste management rules but remaining half of the waste still remains untreated with Municipal solid waste.

It was revealed that out of 84,809 hospitals and healthcare centers available in India, only 48,183 hospitals are treating their waste as per the rules by using common biomedical waste treatment facilities or have engaged private agencies to treat their waste.

It was found that facilities to treat the waste are less in proportion to the amount of waste generated in one day. Every day approximately 4.2 lakh kg of biomedical waste is produced and there are only 157 facilities authorized to treat this waste.

As a result of this mishandling, 14,959 hospitals in the country have been issued show cause notices.

The Bio-Medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998 makes sure that all the biomedical waste produces should be segregated at the point of generation and if dumped then it should not be mixed with any other type of solid waste. This act also passes an authoritative order to all the hospitals to treat the waste in such a manner that it should not hamper the environment and human health.

It was recommended to all health care centers and institutions to install incinerators, autoclaves or microwaves to destroy infectious waste by 2002, but reports discovered that there are only 391 incinerators, 2,562 autoclaves and
458 m microwaves in operation.

The report informs public and private sectors to indulge in a partnership to develop Bio medical waste treatment facilities.

The report also advises to promote new technologies to treat bio-medical waste. For instance the Department of Science and Technology's plasma technology project to destroy the waste should be accelerating.