COVID-19 pandemic and emerging plastic-based personal protective equipment waste pollution and management in Africa

Abstract

The threat of plastic waste pollution in African countries is increasing exponentially since the World Health Organisation declared the coronavirus infection as a pandemic. Fundamental to this growing threat are multiple factors, including the increased public consumption for single-use plastics, limited or non-existence of adequate plastic waste management infrastructures, and urbanisation. Plastics-based personal protective equipment including millions of surgical masks, medical gowns, face shields, safety glasses, protective aprons, sanitiser containers, plastics shoes, and gloves have been widely used for the reduction of exposure risk to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This paper estimates and elucidates the growing plethora of plastic wastes in African countries in the context of the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. A Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectral fingerprint indicates that face masks were characterised by natural and artificial fibres including polyester fibres, polypropylene, natural latex resin. Our estimate suggests that over 12 billion medical and fabric face masks are discarded monthly, giving the likelihood that an equivalent of about 105,000 tonnes of face masks per month could be disposed into the environment by Africans. In general, 15 out of 57 African countries are significant plastic waste contributors with Nigeria (15%), Ethiopia (8.6%), Egypt (7.6%), DR Congo (6.7%), Tanzania (4.5%), and South Africa (4.4%) topping the list. Therefore, this expert insight is an attempt to draw the attention of governments, healthcare agencies, and the public to the potential risks of SARS-CoV-2-generated plastics (COVID plastic wastes), and the environmental impacts that could exacerbate the existing plastic pollution epidemic after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Disposal Behavior of Used Masks during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Moroccan Community: Potential Environmental Impact

“…Therefore, the results could be overestimated. However, the results of this work are in agreement with other contemporary studies [46]. Consequently, further research is needed to investigate the way in which the Moroccan community uses and manages their used PPE items to establish efficient strategies and policies.…”

“…The difference between each country legislations regarding facemask wearing is the main reason for the variation of countries' communities' behavior over the wearing of masks in public during the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent study [46] showed that if 70% of the Moroccan population wear at least one mask per day, the estimated number of facemasks generated and disposed of daily will be around 16,537,438, equivalent to 140,568 kg of facemasks that could be disposed daily in different environments by people living in Morocco. In the same way, we estimated the total daily generated and disposed facemasks for the two studied regions, and surveyed the population using the following equation [46,47]:…”

“…According to our estimations, if the population of two studied regions wears at least one facemask daily at the rate of 70% facemask acceptance, more than five million facemasks would be daily generated and disposed (Table 2). Considering the average weight of a facemask, which is equivalent to 8.58 g [46], the total weight of facemasks used daily in the two studied regions would exceed 40,000 kg. This quantity of discarded facemasks from people living in those regions presents approx.…”

“…Accordingly, the 40,000 kg of daily generated waste of facemasks represents 5% of the total daily produced plastic waste in the country. This kind of waste is manufactured with non-woven materials, which include polypropylene [46]. These plastic products could end up in nature in different ways if they are thrown on roads and streets.…”

SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens in municipal wastewater, landfill leachate, and solid waste: A review about virus surveillance, infectivity, and inactivation

“…In addition, it was shown that in several countries, wastes generated by personal disposal used because of pandemic (as for example facemask) are often discarded in the environment and consequently found in water bodies, as for example in wastewater gullies, inland waterways, and drainage canals. Also, this practice strongly impacts SG 11 ( Benson et al, 2021 ) and SDG 15.…”