Anyone who dumps the finely folded mask, the empty disinfectant bottle or the small corona test cassette in their bin probably does not have the feeling that they are contributing to a massive waste problem. But it’s billions of people who dispose of leftovers from their everyday pandemic life day after day. In addition, there is the corona-related waste from practices, clinics, vaccination and test centers. All in all, they pile up into a huge mountain of rubbish, like a recent analysis by the World Health Organization (WHO). indicates.
For example, the first eight billion vaccine doses administered led not only to important protection against Sars-CoV-2, but also to 144,000 tons of waste in the form of glass ampoules, syringes, needles and disposal boxes.
The protective clothing for health workers alone that the WHO had delivered to member countries by November last year amounts to 87,000 tons. The majority of all the smocks, gloves, masks, hats and shoe covers are likely to have ended up in the garbage today. The 140 million corona tests that the WHO also sent out have resulted in more than 2,000 tons of plastic waste and 730,000 liters of chemical waste – an amount that would three-quarters fill an Olympic-size swimming pool.
30 percent of medical facilities do not have a proper disposal system
According to the organization, even before the pandemic, 30 percent of the world’s healthcare facilities did not have an adequate system for disposing of medical waste. With the pandemic, the problems are likely to have worsened. Because while many facilities struggled for a long time to obtain the necessary equipment to deal with the pandemic, they hardly had enough capacity to plan its safe disposal. But if medical waste is disposed of improperly, the risk of infections, needlestick injuries and cuts increases, the WHO warns.
The current estimate does not yet include corona-related waste from the private sector. It should also be about gigantic amounts. One study from last year estimated that 3.4 billion single-use masks are thrown away every day worldwide. Together with other corona products, 1.6 million tons of plastic waste would be generated every day, the authors write.
This further exacerbates an already worrying environmental problem. Large parts of the plastic end up in the seas, for example, and threaten their inhabitants. Fish and other aquatic animals can become entangled in the plastic scraps or swallow debris, causing serious injury and sometimes death. Anne Woolridge from the international waste disposal organization ISWA states: “There is increasing recognition that investments in the health sector must also take into account the effects on the environment and the climate.” But there is still a lot to be done in terms of practical implementation.
The WHO therefore demands, among other things, that personal protective equipment be used as optimally as possible. Products manufactured in the region should be given priority over imports from far away regions. Packaging should be reduced and produced more sustainably. In the longer term, more reusable protective equipment and investments in structures for the safe disposal of medical waste are needed. At the same time, this could have desirable side effects: the measures save money, reduce material shortages and raise awareness of climate and the environment.