Face masks are one of the main tools to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but, for Pattaya’s garbage collectors, they are perhaps their greatest risk of infection.
Despite pleas from health officials, the overwhelming majority of Pattaya residents are simply tossing their soiled facemasks into the trash. When Pattaya’s garbage men sort rubbish from recyclables, they are confronted with a wave of potentially coronavirus-infected fabric.
Hospitals bag their gowns and facemasks into hazardous waste bags. Medical professionals and Pattaya’s trash collectors want residents to do the same.
Kung, one of the city’s many garbagemen, said he fears catching Covid-19 from the refuse he has to sort through every day. Reaching senior citizenship, he’s in the highest-risk group for infection and uses both gloves and masks to protect himself.
He said residents smile and are polite to him, but simultaneously are being thoughtless about how they disposed of their personal hazardous material.
To protect garbagemen, people should sort their own recyclables, put infectious waste into bags and also put broken glass and toxic material into easily identifiable bags, Kung said.
The men and women sorting through society’s waste and refuse never aspired to do this as a career. For many, he said, it’s their only option. Pattaya’s locals need to be considerable enough to understand that, he said.
