Background Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to a massive global socio-economic tragedy that has impacted the ecosystem. This paper aims to contextualize urban and rural environmental situations during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region. Results An online survey was conducted, 6770 participants were included in the final analysis, and 64% were females. The majority of the participants were urban citizens (74%). Over 50% of the urban residents significantly (p < 0.001) reported a reduction in noise, gathering in tourist areas, and gathering in malls and restaurants. Concerning the pollutants, most urban and rural areas have reported an increase in masks thrown in streets (69.49% vs. 73.22%, resp.; p = 0.003). Plastic bags and hospital waste also increased significantly with the same p-value of < 0.001 in urban areas compared with rural ones. The multifactorial logistic model for urban resident predictors achieved acceptable discrimination (AUROC = 0.633) according to age, crowdedness, noise and few pollutants. Conclusion The COVID-19 pandemic had a beneficial impact on the environment and at the same time, various challenges regarding plastic and medical wastes are rising which requires environmental interventions.

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In this investigation, the nanocomposites were synthesized using the physical mixing technique. This technique involved adding 20% titanium dioxide (TiO2) to a combination of PMMA and PVA in terms of weight percentages. The physical properties of prepared nanocomposite have been examined by using scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction technique XRD, Fourier transformed infrared spectrometry (FTIR) and UV–Vis spectroscopy. XRD patterns specified that the prepared composite was mostly crystalline in nature. Scanning electron micrograph showed that TiO2 nanoparticles were covered with a polymer blend matrix. FTIR results confirmed the presence of PVA and PMMA groups on the surface of TiO2 NPs. The MTT assay method was utilized on the MSF-7 cell line in order to evaluate the potential anticancer properties of the produced components. The nanocomposites showed good activity on cancer cells.

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