Disposal of Personal Protective Equipment during the COVID-19 Pandemic Is a Challenge for Waste Collection Companies and Society: A Case Study in Poland

Nowakowski, Piotr; Kuśnierz, Sandra; Sosna, Patrycja; Mauer, Jakub; Maj, Dawid

doi:10.3390/resources9100116

Cited by 66 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…This may lead not only to a significant rise in the amount of waste in seas and oceans, but it may also shift the main sources of marine litter—PPE becoming the main threat [ 119 , 121 ]. The proper disposal of Personal Protective Equipment, as well as the development of appropriate recycling technologies for disposable (single-use) PPE used in the healthcare sector and in our homes, becomes a global challenge [ 35 ]. Rethinking and optimizing plastic waste management under the COVID-19 pandemic becomes a necessity and a technological challenge to be solved in the near future [ 122 ].…”

Section: Covid-19 Pandemic Impact On Marine Waste Generation—whatmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Marine Waste—Sources, Fate, Risks, Challenges and Research Needs

Dąbrowska

Sobota

Świąder

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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The article presents a comprehensive and cross-cutting review of key marine waste issues, taking into account: sources, fate, risks, transport pathways, threats, legislation, current challenges, and knowledge gaps. The growing amount of both human-created waste in seas and oceans and waste reaching marine ecosystems from land is one of today’s challenges for the global economy and the European Union. It is predicted that if no decisive steps are taken to limit the amount of this type of waste, there may be more plastic waste than fish in the oceans after 2050. The influence of microplastics and nanoplastics on living organisms remains undiagnosed. Within the international and EU law, solutions are being developed to properly manage waste on board ships and to reduce the impact of processes related to the recycling of the vessels on the environment. Currently, over 80% of ships are dismantled in the countries of South Asia, in conditions that threaten the environment and the safety of workers. After World War 2, large quantities of chemical weapons were deposited in the seas. Steel containers with dangerous substances residing in the sea for over 70 years have begun leaking, thus polluting water. For many years, radioactive waste had also been dumped into marine ecosystems, although since 1993 there has been a total ban on such disposal of radionuclides. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on marine waste generation has also been presented as a significant factor influencing marine waste generation and management.

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Section: Covid-19 Pandemic Impact On Marine Waste Generation—whatmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to many authors and sources, the COVID-19 pandemic has both positive and negative influences on the environment. Frozen anthropogenic activity has reduced emissions of some pollutants [ 33 , 34 ], but also increased the amount of waste from Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) [ 35 , 36 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine Waste—Sources, Fate, Risks, Challenges and Research Needs

Dąbrowska

Sobota

Świąder

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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“…In order to motivate decision-makers to do so, some techniques must be devised to recycle these masks and turn them into secondary or energy materials [ 23 ]. Usually, landfill, incineration and combustion are used for disposal of medical waste, however, these methods have several problems related to chronical occupancy and contamination of ocean and soil, and emission of hazardous gases into environment [ 24 , 25 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pyrolysis kinetic behaviour and TG-FTIR-GC–MS analysis of Coronavirus Face Masks

Yousef

Eimontas

Striūgas

et al. 2021

Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis

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In the times of Covid-19, face masks are considered to be the main source of protection against the virus that reduces its spread. These masks are classified as single-use medical products with a very short service life, estimated at few days, hence millions of contaminated masks are generated daily in the form of hazardous materials, what requires to develop a safe method to dispose of them, especially since some of them are loaded with viruses. 3-ply face masks (3PFM) represent the major fraction of this waste and are composed mainly from polypropylene and melt blown filter with high content of volatile substances (96.6 wt.%), what makes pyrolysis treatment an emerging technology that could be used to dispose of face masks and convert them into energy products. In this context, this work aims to study pyrolysis kinetic behaviour and TG-FTIR-GC–MS analysis of 3PFM. The research started with analysis of 3PFM using elemental analysis, proximate analysis, and compositional analyses. Afterwards, TG-FTIR system was used to study the thermal and chemical decomposition of 3PFM analyzed at different heating rates: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 °C/min. The GC/MS system was used to observe the synthesized volatile products at the maximum decomposition temperatures. After that, isoconversional methods, the advanced nonlinear integral isoconversional method, and the iterative linear integral isoconversional method were used to determine the activation energies of mask pyrolysis, while the distributed activation energy model and the independent parallel reactions kinetic model were used to fit TGA and DTG curves with deviations below <1. The TGA-DTG results showed that 3PFM can decompose in three different periods with a total weight loss of 95 % and maximum decomposition in the range 405−510 °C, while the FTIR spectra and GC–MS analysis exhibited that – C—H (aromatic and aliphatic) and 2,4-Dimethyl-1-heptene (28–43 % based on heating rate) represented the major compounds in the released volatile components. Finally, Vyazovkin and the iterative linear integral isoconversional methods gave activation energies almost similar to that obtained by the KAS isoconversional method.

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“…Given the magnitude of the crisis and the highly infectious nature of the disease, the sustainable and hygienic management of potentially hazardous waste remains a priority for halting its potential spread- a connection that was made both early and forcefully from many within the interdisciplinary waste management studies field (cf. ( Ilyas et al, 2020 , Nowakowski et al, 2020 , Tilley and Kalina, 2020 , WHO, 2020 ). Moreover, others, including ourselves, expressed concern over a potential avalanche of Covid waste: and not exclusively medical waste, but takeaway containers, plastic bags, empty bottles of sanitizer, and millions of discarded face masks, all generated by a society coping with a new reality of state-mandated consumption and behaviour restrictions (cf.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…( Adyel, 2020 , Doheny, 2020 , Forrest, 2020 , Klemeš et al, 2020 , Schuman, 2020 , Sharma et al, 2020 , Vanapalli et al, 2021 ), as well as the growing environmental impact of discarded personal protective equipment (PPE), including the ubiquitous disposable facemask (cf. ( Nowakowski et al, 2020 , Ragazzi et al, 2020 , Urban and Nakada, 2021 ). Nonetheless, despite this early evidence of Covid-19′s huge waste impact, the stories of overburdened municipal services, mountains of plastic waste, and of sidewalks strewn with discarded masks, seem largely confined to the Global North.…”

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confidence: 99%