In order to reduce the risk for waste collectors of the municipality, sub-district administrative organisation or village, the MFU Infectious Waste Disposal Plant has cooperated with the Circular Economy for Waste-free Thailand (CEWT), the School of Science and the School of Health Science to set up the temporary collection point for the used face masks of MFU students and staff members.
According to the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), there has obviously been a high demand for face masks with the subsequent generation of a huge quantity of what may be considered infectious waste. Asst. Prof. Dr.Panate Manomaivibool, the Head of CEWT and a lecturer of the School of Science expressed that the orange-coloured bin for the used face masks has been set up at the parking lot of the Mekong Basin Civilization Museum. He added that the disposing of used masks in rubbish bin directly may risk spreading coronavirus to waste collectors. It is safe to put them into a sealed plastic bag. Then, the used masks will be transported to the Infectious Waste Disposal Plant and will be safely incinerated in order to prevent infection.
Moreover, there is no waste separation for this hazardous bin. For safety of all waste collectors, please do not put other wastes in this bin. The CEWT has provided the alcohol-based hand sanitizers at the collection point during the working hours.
The MFU Infectious Waste Disposal Plant offers infectious waste disposal services for the MFU Medical Centre Hospital and all district hospitals in Chiang Rai province. The safe disposal of face masks and other infectious wastes can be collected through the sub-district health promoting hospitals and district hospitals and transported to the MFU Infectious Waste Disposal Plant for incineration.