SARS-CoV-2 pandemic-induced PPE and single-use plastic waste generation scenario

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has demonstrated both positive and negative effects on the environment. Major concerns over personal hygiene, mandated and ease in lockdown actions and slackening of some policy measures have led to a massive surge in the use of disposable personal protective equipment (PPE) and other single-use plastic items. This generated an enormous amount of plastic waste from both healthcare and household units, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Apart from the healthcare workers, the general public have become accustomed to using PPE. These habits are threatening the land and marine environment with immense loads of plastic waste, due to improper disposal practices across the world, especially in developing nations. Contaminated PPE has already made its way to the oceans which will inevitably produce plastic particles alongside other pathogen-driven diseases. This study provided an estimation-based approach in quantifying the amount of contaminated plastic waste that can be expected daily from the massive usage of PPE (e.g. facemasks) because of the countrywide mandated regulations on PPE usage. The situation of Bangladesh has been analysed and projections revealed that a total of 3.4 billion pieces of single-use facemask, hand sanitizer bottles, hand gloves and disposable polyethylene bags will be produced monthly, which will give rise to 472.30 t of disposable plastic waste per day. The equations provided for the quantification of waste from used single-use plastic and PPE can be used for other countries for rough estimations. Then, the discussed recommendations will help concerned authorities and policy makers to design effective response plans. Sustainable plastic waste management for the current and post-pandemic period can be imagined and acted upon.

Plastic and its consequences during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…4 Fast food purchased from an app delivery There is no doubt that plastic plays an important role in our society, especially during pandemics as discussed throughout this work, but it may bring several problems. The current situation has proved that existing considerations of plastic waste management systems are inadequate (Haque et al 2021). Also, the increased plastic pollution during the pandemic was aggravated by the lack of knowledge about the type of domestic waste generated and its deficient classification by people at home (Konda et al 2020).…”

A critical synthesis of current peer-reviewed literature on the environmental and human health impacts of COVID-19 PPE litter: New findings and next steps

“…This has resulted in the establishment of an entirely new interdisciplinary platform for PPE research, which has grown tremendously over the last two years. On the one hand, several rough estimates have quantified waste from used single-use plastic and PPE, as well as calculated the number of face masks to be used and average daily usages in each country ( Chowdhury et al, 2021 , Haque et al, 2021 ), which could total nearly 129 billion masks consumed monthly ( Prata et al, 2020 ). Environmental PPE surveys, on the other hand, have already reported the presence of a variety of discarded COVID-19 pandemic items in aquatic and terrestrial environments ( Thiel et al, 2021 , De-la-Torre et al, 2021 , Ardusso et al, 2021 , Okuku et al, 2021 ).…”

Biodegradable and multifunctional surgical face masks: A brief review on demands during COVID-19 pandemic, recent developments, and future perspectives

“…Assuming that each face mask weighs only 3 g, this would translate to around 4.1 million tons of plastic waste per year globally. A staggering 80% portion of such waste goes into our marine environment, and unfortunately, this waste has already found its way to our water streams ( Haque et al, 2021 ). Disposable surgical face masks are made of synthetic precursors and their wide usage poses a serious threat to our environment ( Aragaw, 2020 ; Fadare and Okoffo, 2020 ; Silva et al, 2020 ).…”