Handling Waste During Coronavirus

How to Handle Your Waste

There’s been no shortage of disseminated information on how to cope with the coronavirus outbreak. The focus of this, quite rightly, tends to be centred on the prevention of the spreading of the virus: regularly wash your hands for twenty seconds, stop touching your face wherever possible and make sure that you cough into a tissue or your sleeve. But what appears to be less widely discussed are the steps that you should take to ensure that your office, accommodation or workplace is as clean as possible in order to cull COVID-19.

It’s been widely discussed that the primary method of spreading the coronavirus is through the transmission of droplets produced whilst coughing and sneezing. Whereas this deters the gathering of people in close proximity, the virus itself can also live on contact surfaces and waste, where it can be transferred and spread as a result. In and around the home or the workplace, these can include bathrooms, door handles and touch plates, telephones, keyboards and grab-rails.

With that in mind, here are a few tips on how you can ensure that your waste removal is as safe and as sanitary as possible, especially if coming into contact with COVID-19.

Dealing With Your Waste

As is usually the case, common-sense and caution are the way to deal with waste removal and combatting coronavirus in the home or workplace is no different. Studies suggest that once a surface has been contacted by someone with the symptoms of coronavirus, cleaning the area with disinfectant will reduce the chances of the infection being passed on and that the volume of the living virus on a surface will be reduced after a period of 72 hours.

Official advice states that in order to reduce transmission of the virus, you should double-up on the use of bin bags when disposing of cleaning clothes, aprons, washing-up gloves and any other disposable personal protective equipment (PPE).

If you’re dealing with items that have been heavily contaminated by bodily fluids, such as bedding, then further PPE such as goggles and mouth/nose masks should be employed and disposed of in the same way. These items should then be stored securely for 72 hours.

During this time, the waste should be kept away from communal areas such as bin enclosures, hallways and alleyways where it may come into contact with other individuals or children. The waste can be disposed of as with regular rubbish once the 72 hour period has elapsed or the relevant person’s infected status has been confirmed.

Other advice for reducing transmission of the virus is as follows:

Cleaning clothes and upholstery:

Use the warmest water settings and dry completely

Follow manufacturer’s instructions

Avoid shaking clothing to reduce the potential spread of droplets

Thoroughly clean and disinfect laundry baskets, bags and clothing bins

Cleaning contact surfaces:

Pay particular attention to areas contaminated by visible bodily fluids

Use disposable cloths, mop-heads and paper roll and dispose of as mentioned above

Use a household detergent and/or disinfectant

Avoid creating splashes when cleaning

Steam clean where detergents cannot be used

For those that are self-isolating as a precaution and without exhibiting any of the symptoms, here are some other ways in which Clearabee is making sure that you can take advantage of our services for your home or office, whilst still staying safe. In the meantime, take care of yourselves.