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DOTHAN, Ala. (WDHN) — Business owners in the Circle City were put at ease when they learned that a company had unplugged a machine that burns medical waste. Now, the company is trying to purchase a new medical waste system that they say is safer.
Over the last 7 years, a facility in the 200 block of Speigner Road in Dothan has been disposing of nearly 10 tons of medical waste a month using an incinerator.
For the past year, the facility has been owned by Daniels Sharpsmart, and after hearing concerns from nearby businesses in the area last week during a public hearing to buy another machine.
Daniels decided to unplug the incinerator for good.
“The power has been disconnected, the gas has been disconnected, and we don’t have any intent on running that equipment,” Daniels Executive Director of Operations, Daniel Gleeson says. “One of the things I want to do going forward is make sure there is open communication where if somethings going on or the publics not happy. I want to hear about it.”
There were concerns that the waste being burned was sending black smoke into the air which made it difficult for people to breathe and forced them to stop working.
“When ya’ll were burning before, I would make my guys leave the shop and come into the office because the wind usually blew from you across to me and it was too much,” Concerned business owner, Dewayne Howard says.
Now that waste that needs to be burned will be sent to another facility that has an incinerator.
Daniels is trying to buy an autoclave or steam sterilization unit, which will give them the ability to dispose of nearly 25 tons of medical waste a month or 228 tons a year from hospitals across the state.
“So basically, it puts steam into a pressure vessel and so it’s not burning anything right, so no gases are coming from the waste, it is using hot steam to sterilize the waste,” Gleeson says.
Officials do say that some steam will be released into the atmosphere through a ventilation system and water from the machine will go into the city’s sanitation system.
However, they say the vapor that will be released is not toxic or harmful and the water going into the sewage system is not acidic and is pretty clean.
In the proposed idea, after sterilization, the waste will then be taken to the Coffee County Landfill to be disposed of.
If residents still have questions or concerns they still have until Friday to submit that to Daniels. Daniels will then send the responses to the city commission, which will then decide on whether or not to approve the autoclave.
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