The federal government plans to burn at least 755 million corona protective masks because they are no longer durable. According to a media report, the costs are estimated at almost seven million euros.
Masses of corona protective masks from the beginning of 2020 are to be destroyed because they have passed their sell-by date. According to a report in the newspaper “Die Welt”, the federal government alone is planning to burn at least 660 million certified surgical masks and around 95 million certified FFP2 masks.
The ministry is now planning “energy recovery that conforms to customs and waste law,” a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Health told the newspaper. A call for tenders for external disposal companies, which Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) had started, ran until the end of May. According to the report, the term is 24 months and the estimated order value is almost seven million euros.
Massive criticism “oversupply”
There was sharp criticism of the project and of the former Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU), during whose tenure the masks had been purchased. “The expensive over-procurement under the former Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn has gotten out of control,” said the FDP budget expert Karsten Klein of the newspaper.
“Mistakes have been made that must not be repeated.” Klein called on the federal states to establish a “rolling system” so that “masks are given to medical facilities before they lose their shelf life”.
The opposition voiced sharp criticism. “The massive burning of corona masks by the Federal Ministry of Health is a sign of poverty for the Federal Government,” criticized Kathrin Vogler, spokeswoman for health policy for the left-wing parliamentary group in the Bundestag.
It was foreseeable that the masks would no longer be used in many areas after the end of the mask requirement. The current Minister Lauterbach “should have found an alternative solution in good time and could have given the masks to medical practices, hospitals or facilities for the disabled on a large scale,” said Vogler.
The facilities would then no longer have to order their own masks and could have protected employees and patients free of charge.
Countries also plan annihilation
So far, the Federal Ministry of Health has already had masks destroyed on a smaller scale, said the spokesman for “Welt”. “So far, around two million surgical masks and around one million PfH have been energetically recycled in Germany,” he said. PfH masks are FPP2 and similar masks.
Countries are also planning to burn millions of masks or have already done so, the report said. Ten countries state that they have burned a total of 57.38 million masks or that they want to burn them in a timely manner.
North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Württemberg, Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg and Rhineland-Palatinate are among the federal states that have already burned protective masks. Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Saarland and Hesse have corresponding plans.