Med Waste Continues

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photos of Medical waste in the alley Parallel to the 3800 block of T Street.

photos of Medical waste in the alley Parallel to the 3800 block of T Street.

photos taken on april 20, 2020.

photos taken on april 20, 2020.

By Eric Langenbacher, BCA President

The situation with medical waste throughout much of Burleith has concerned neighbors, the BCA, and the Georgetown Community Partnership for a year.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the folks who have worked so hard on trying to resolve this issue with MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. In particular, we are extremely grateful to Nan Bell and Janice Sims, who have represented Burleith on the Georgetown Community Partnership, Michael McDuffie, who has devoted countless hours to the issue, Cory Peterson at Georgetown University's Office of Neighborhood Life—as well as MedStar Health’s Regina Knox Woods, vice president of government affairs for the District of Columbia.

  1. The BCA established an email in 2019 (trash@burleith.org) where community members can send trash/waste information. Thanks to all who have emailed. Please do continue to report issues so that we can get a better idea of the scope of the problem and the efforts to deal with it. (Please include “Litter” in the subject line and read the October 2019 web post for more reporting specifics.)

  2. Concerned residents have also set up a tracking website at www.medstarmedicalwaste.com. As of last week, residents have found 133 items of medical waste (e.g., medical gloves, masks, medical caps), including 46 since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic.

  3. MedStar GU Hospital has recently sent a message about steps they have taken to address the litter/trash issues in our neighborhood. You can email them at MGUHcommunitycleanup@medstar.net with any issues.

It has taken a while to get to this point. Please remain vigilant about the medical waste issues and continue to report to the BCA so that we can ensure that the measures to address this critical public health issue are sufficient.

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