Personal protective equipment use during COVID-19 pandemic and associated waste management in households in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The use of personal protective equipment (PPE) is compulsory when accessing public places due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in many countries. Facemasks are the most common PPE used, however, some people use face shields and gloves. Frequent hand sanitizing is also recommended aiming to control the spread of the disease. All these activities generate a large amount of plastic waste daily. In Sri Lanka, it is estimated that 12 million facemasks are used daily, while 0.22 million gloves and 0.29 million face shields are used. Out of 12 million facemasks, 10 million are surgical or N95 masks. In addition, 0.79 million sanitizer bottles are used in a day, leaving empty plastic bottles. The most common method of disposing of facemasks in Sri Lanka is open burning by the users at their homes (55%). The rate of burning is comparatively low for other PPE. Although nearly 30% of people handover used facemasks to the municipal solid waste collection, there are no special precautions taken for separate collection and safe disposal. Guidelines are in place for handling healthcare waste generated in households under self-quarantine, but they are not applied for PPE waste generated in other households. Major drawbacks in PPE waste management is identified and mitigation measures were proposed. The estimate of waste plastics generated due to PPE use is 88.5 tonnes per day in the country. Energy recovery via pyrolysis may be a viable alternative to landfilling and affordable for developing countries.