Personal protective equipment (PPE) is ending up in the ocean.
To reduce the transmission of the virus, health care workers and facilities around the world have collectively bought and used millions of PPE products. According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, hospitals in Wuhan, the initial epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, produced more than 240 tons of single-use plastic medical waste (such as disposable face masks, gloves, and gowns), per day, at the peak of the pandemic—6x more than the daily average prior to the pandemic. Also, scientists and public-health officials recommended that the general public start using PPE, including face masks and medical gloves to protect themselves and others from respiratory illness, which also added to this growing global waste stream.
While face masks and gloves, in addition to other preventive measures, help to slow the spread of the virus, they also lead to a flood of plastic pollution—An issue that our struggling planet already faces. This is because most protective equipment is designed for single-use purposes to limit the risk of contamination, especially when dealing with patients exposed to the virus.
Throwing PPE in trash bins is your responsibility for not creating a new type of pollution on our planet.
Sources:
- https://youtu.be/5fZyH43H030
- https://www.roadrunnerwm.com/blog/impact-of-ppe-waste
- https://www.euronews.com/2020/06/25/surge-in-marine-plastic-waste-as-people-discard-ppe-used-to-ward-off-covid-19
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