Despite the potential impacts, the total amount of pandemic-associated plastic waste and its environmental and health impacts are largely unknown. The plastic debris could also facilitate species invasion and transport of contaminants including the COVID-19 virus ( 21– 23). Some cases of entanglement, entrapment, and ingestion of COVID-19 waste by marine organisms, even leading to death, have been reported ( 19, 20). Earlier studies have also raised the potential problem of COVID-19 plastic pollution and its impact on marine life ( 16– 18). For example, a recent report estimated that 1.56 million face masks entered the oceans in 2020 ( 15). The released plastics can be transported over long distances in the ocean, encounter marine wildlife, and potentially lead to injury or even death ( 11– 14). This mismanaged plastic waste (MMPW) is then discharged into the environment, and a portion reaches the ocean ( 10). Pandemic epicenters in particular struggle to process the waste ( 7), and not all the used PPEs and packaging materials are handled or recycled ( 8, 9). Unfortunately, the treatment of plastic waste is not keeping up with the increased demand for plastic products. In addition, lockdowns, social distancing, and restrictions on public gathering increase the dependency on online shopping at an unprecedented speed, the packaging material of which often contains plastics ( 5, 6). To sustain the enormous demand for personal protective equipment (PPE, including face masks, gloves, and face shields), many single-use plastic (SUP) legislations have been withdrawn or postponed ( 2). The surging number of inpatients and virus testing substantially increase the amount of plastic medical waste ( 4). As of August 23, 2021, about 212 million people worldwide have been infected with the COVID-19 virus with the most confirmed cases in the Americas (47.6%) and Asia (31.22%) followed by Europe (17.26%) ( 3). The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the indispensable role of plastic in the healthcare sector and public health safety ( 2). Plastics have an excellent strength to weight ratio, and they are durable and inexpensive, making them the material of choice for most disposable medical tools, equipment, and packaging ( 1, 2). We find hospital waste represents the bulk of the global discharge (73%), and most of the global discharge is from Asia (72%), which calls for better management of medical waste in developing countries. The model projects that the spatial distribution of the discharge changes rapidly in the global ocean within 3 y, with a significant portion of plastic debris landing on the beach and seabed later and a circumpolar plastic accumulation zone will be formed in the Arctic. We show that 8.4 ± 1.4 million tons of pandemic-associated plastic waste have been generated from 193 countries as of August 23, 2021, with 25.9 ± 3.8 thousand tons released into the global ocean representing 1.5 ± 0.2% of the global total riverine plastic discharge. Here, we use our MITgcm ocean plastic model to quantify the impact of the pandemic on plastic discharge. While it is suspected to be large, the magnitude and fate of this pandemic-associated mismanaged plastic waste are unknown. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increased demand for single-use plastics that intensifies pressure on an already out-of-control global plastic waste problem.
0 kommentar(er)
