THE IMPACT OF PLASTIC PPE DURING COVID-19

The impact of plastic PPE during COVID-19 will not be seen fully for years to come…

Personal protective equipment (PPE) has created overwhelming plastic waste. PPE was produced by the billions across the world with the outbreak of COVID-19. According to a study done in the UK, 132 million masks are being used, 145 million aprons worn, 470 million gloves worn; all of which are made of PLASTIC. Although these PPE items are made to save our lives, lingering PPE items can serve as hosting ground for further disease. Not only that but an outrageous amount of PPE has been found in the beaches, water ways, oceans, etc…

As much as five trillion pieces of plastic debris were estimated to be found in the world’s oceans, while anywhere from 4.8-12.7m tonnes of plastic waste entered the marine environment as far back as 2010.

• In the UK, 784 million PPE items were used in hospitals in just a 53-day period at the start of the pandemic. This equated to 14 million pieces of equipment being thrown away daily.
• If every person wears a single-use face mask every day for a year, as much as 66,000 tonnes of unrecyclable plastic waste could be thrown away. This would cause damage to marine ecosystems, as well as pollution of natural resources.
• The sudden need for single-use PPE, bubble wrap for the transportation of online shopping and numerous other COVID-related factors have directly resulted in a surge in plastic production. Most of this plastic is “new plastic”, rather than recycled plastic – new plastic is far more damaging to the environment but 83-93% cheaper to produce.

With all this plastic consumption and contamination, we won’t really know the environmental impact of the coronavirus for years to come.

It is really important that we reduce single-use PPE items as much as we can. And if you do have to join the consumption of PPE items then find the way to purchase recyclable items so you recycle them or dispose of them correctly. A program called Zero Waste Box can collect, clean, and repurpose the PPE items.

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