The year 2020 started with an outburst of a pandemic, Covid 19, and the only available solution initially was ‘Do Gajj ki doori and Mask Hai jaroori’ and then came the vaccination drive.
Personal Protective Equipment, such as masks, looking at the nature of the pandemic became vital in battling the crisis. PPE for the management of COVID-19 includes the following like masks, gloves, protective aprons and a face shield. Roughly 66 billion plastic gloves and 129 billion face masks every month are used and disposed of on the globe. This high demand of PPE, led to increased production which resulted into increased use of plastic. Most of the face masks are manufactured from single use plastics such as polypropylene and polyethylene which break down very slowly. Since it’s a health crisis situation, so health & safety, currently is more important than general increase of plastic and waste disposal. Apart from these protective gears, there are also plastic packaging being extensively used with more and more people using home deliveries for essential and non-essential shopping.
Largely, a lot of single-use plastic PPE, being used by health workers and the public are discarded daily. These include masks, gloves, protective aprons, face shields, safety glasses, sanitizer containers, plastics shoes and medical gowns, which are generally made from non-woven materials including polymeric substances such as polypropylene. Also, gloves are made from different materials which includes, chloroethene polymers, neoprene and vinyl. This clearly indicates that current ongoing pandemic has a huge role to play in the increase of the environmental pollution and also has a negative impact to human and animal health.
Globally, as of 21 October 2021, there have been 241,886,635 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 4,919,755 deaths. As of 20 October 2021, a total of 6,655,399,359 vaccine doses have been administered. ( WHO Report, 2021)
In India, from 3 January 2020 to 21 October 2021, there have been 34,127,450 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 452,811 deaths, reported to WHO. As of 18 October 2021, a total of 986,769,411 vaccine doses have been administered.( WHO Report, 2021)
As per CPCB reports , India produced 614 metric Tonnes of Bio Medical waste per day prior to the pandemic which rose to an additional 126 tonnes of COVID-19 waste a day — which is about 20 per cent of the 614 tonnes of biomedical waste that the country generated on any given day before the pandemic.
In May 2021, when India recorded the maximum number of new cases, COVID-19 accounted for 33 per cent of the biomedical waste generated across the country, which was huge and has further strained an already-overburdened biomedical waste treatment infrastructure.
The volume that month was massive at places. In Haryana only COVID-19 waste was responsible for 47 per cent of the biomedical waste followed by Chhattisgarh (42 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (40 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (40 per cent) and Delhi (39 per cent). A careful analysis of CPCB’s January and May 2021 reports suggests that 22 of the 35 states and Union Territories generate more biomedical waste than they can handle.
The COVID-19 vaccination drive in India has also generated 268 million syringes and needles and more than 18 million glass vials, all of which will be considered as COVID-19 related biomedical waste. At the end of the vaccination, India will generate over 1.3 billion syringes and needles and over 100 million glass vials.
As per CPCB estimates, India has the capacity to incinerate 840 metric tonnes of biomedical waste per day which is at par with the current generation of Bio Medical/ Covid waste. On the face of it, India seems to be well equipped to handle this quantum of Bio Medical waste but there are other factors which cannot be overlooked.
Therefore the major two problems that came up with this pandemic is increased plastic footprint and an additional load of Bio Medical Waste which needs to be addressed immediately so as to avoid larger repercussions in the future.
We cannot afford to deal with a health crisis at the cost of environment for sure.
What we as a responsible citizen need to do in that case to curb this crisis and protect our environment?
- To begin with, every individual needs to consciously reduce the plastic footprint by reusing the masks. The reusable mask has ten times less climate change impact than disposable masks. As per the study, for a country with population one fourth of US population, if all citizens were to wear surgical masks, they would need 12 billion masks. And it equals around 720.000 tons of CO2-equivalent. That is almost equivalent to 141,114 passenger vehicles driven in for one year ! And that’s huge.
- Secondly its very important now to segregate the waste at the source. No PPE should go in to our regular trash as these surgical masks wont biodegrade. At an individual level we all hold a big responsibility in how we dispose of things. Proper disposal is coming one step closer to the solution.
- Because of poor segregation, all PPE waste is incinerated which results in a blunder to environment as PPE is mainly single use plastic and burning of plastic releases noxious gases like dioxins and furans.
- We need to intensify the awareness, as people need to be aware of the huge negative environmental impact of that little surgical mask going into a trash.
- If segregated at source, PPE waste can be recycled and can be used efficiently in manufacturing bricks, plastic roads and recently there has been development in the area of manufacturing of cement. These masks can be a good building material for sure.
- As per Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules,2016, colour bar codes of bags are used for tracking the source of the waste once it reaches the treatment facility.
Any non-plastic PPE kits worn inside Covid wards, masks worn by patients, and other materials containing bodily fluids are examples of waste put in yellow bags and sent to burn. Plastic face shields, coveralls, and gloves go into red bags that can be autoclaved and then recycled.
To conclude, Refuse, Reduce and Recycle is the key to a problem along with an efficient disposal. We need to understand that sustainable solutions are required to reduce the environmental impacts, while meeting the mask demand and other PPE requirements. We all need to be vigilant of our actions and act responsibly. Environment has already been degraded enough with the Industrial Revolution and now when we know that our planet is already at risk, we need to act consciously and be fully aware of our actions and its reactions.
Therefore we need to Act Responsibly, Consciously and fully aware of our surroundings. We all need to understand that waste management has to be a shared responsibility and we all should do our bit to save the planet. The youth of our country should be the torch bearers and lead the way. Sushant University, one of the best private university in gurugram, upholds and consciously makes efforts to promote the value of respect towards environment.
