This manual entry was conceptualised as a guide on how to cope with one of the crises that developed from this pandemic - the massive amount of waste generated. Before getting on with the article, we do feel the need to place first a word of caution: this piece is under no circumstances meant to provide medical advice for protecting yourself and the people around you against infection. We would like to highlight that your safety and protection should always be your number one priority under a health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. So, we do feel the need to stress that you should always follow the recommendations from the responsible authorities with regard to the proper protection measures. 

So, why should we TACKLE OUR PANDEMIC WASTE?

We produced this piece since the pandemic has altered our consumption patterns, especially with regard to the increased consumption of plastic-based products.

The waste generated by the pandemic has been a challenge to our environment due to: the emissions associated with the production and transportation of single-use plastics, the pressure placed on municipal solid waste management systems as well as the increasing amounts of litter polluting our environment.

There are many more aspects to this, but we don’t want this to be a spoiler!
Click on the button below to learn more about the Waste Challenges caused by COVID-19.

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Our endeavour with this article is to offer advice on sustainable options and measures to help you deal with the challenges of waste surge as a ramification of the pandemic. We also urge you to always check this advice yourself if they follow the guidelines put forward by your own national and local authorities. If you are in doubt, prioritise the measures offered by your general practitioner and authorities regarding appropriate personal protection equipment (PPE) and measures.

COVID-19 & Our Consumption: What Has Changed?

The COVID-19 pandemic has been affecting the way business is carried, education is delivered, social relationships are maintained and developed, and even how our consumption is realised. The occurrence of a pandemic is said to be comparable to natural or man-made disasters (e.g. earthquakes, hurricanes, world wars) when it comes to its effects on our consumption patterns. These events are largely unpredictable and disruptive and have both immediate and long-term impacts on our lives (Sheth, 2020). Some key trends in our everyday life that have emerged during the pandemic are:

• altered workforce patterns, with a large number of workers wishing for hybrid/remote work arrangements

• higher incidence of social anxiety, depression and feelings of isolation

• altered patterns in routines within the personal, family, and workspaces

• increased levels of awareness for personal hygiene measures and preventative care (such as using hand-sanitisers) becoming more mainstream

• increased waste generation and plastic pollution

Thus, the pandemic has heavily affected our consumer behaviours. For example: 

• An initial round of panic buying staples and hygiene products has been driven by the anxieties of the debut of the pandemic.

• E-commerce (i.e. online shopping) increased drastically during lock-down periods as physical shops have been forced to stay closed.

• More equipment for alternative activities and hobbies has been purchased since many social activities have been widely prohibited/ discouraged. 

• Supply chains have been challenged due to shortages of key materials and products, as well as reduced production outputs due to strict stay at home orders and closed production facilities.

• The consumption of plastic products (for example due to the preference for online shopping, closed restaurants, and favouring takeaway food) increased. 

• More attention and effort was given to conscious consumption and to purchases from local providers, as a means of showing compassion to small businesses that have been heavily affected by lockdown measures. 

The pandemic also introduced mandates and regulations that required us to buy items that are meant to protect ourselves from the virus and to help slow down the rate of infections. Since these items are mandatory, they have to be purchased and used whether we personally like to or not. For example:

• Personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks, mouth/face shields and gloves. Among these, masks have the highest rate of consumption.

• Household and personal cleaning products and disinfectants (e.g. rubbing alcohol, sanitisers, wipes).

These overall changes in our consumption patterns have also led to a problematic increase in the generation of a specific material - plastic waste. 

In addition to helping you reduce your household plastic waste generation, we have compiled advice on the reduction and disposal of medical wastes. We will provide you with information about alternatives to single-use plastic products and advice for caring for and prolonging the lives of reusable products.

How to Properly Discard & Reuse the Protective Equipment?

Given the nature of COVID-19, there is no truly footprint-free way to deal with PPE, especially face masks. However, there are some practical pieces of advice, which will help you minimise the negative impacts on the environment, especially with regards to properly discarding PPEs and, if possible, safely reusing available resources.

DISPOSING OF MEDICAL WASTES CREATED DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

When disposing of used PPE, such as latex gloves or face coverings, the best way to prevent and to mitigate the impacts of pollution is to dispose of them correctly and ensure that they do not become harmful to the Earth’s ecosystem.

It is extremely important to dispose of used face masks and other PPE according to your country’s municipal waste management recommendations. However, if there are no specific recommendations, here is a set of rules of thumb to help you dispose of your medical waste more sustainably:  

• Disposable face masks have to be thrown away after being worn once. Keep in mind: Always wash your hands after handling or touching a used mask.

• Don’t leave your used masks and gloves on any surface (e.g. shopping trolleys, public facilities) nor drop them as litter as they will be a source of infection.

• Used masks should be properly stored, in case you’re willing to reuse them. Ideally, face masks should not be used once they are soiled or the inner lining gets moist.

• Take used masks home with you to discard, rather than throwing them in communal rubbish bins. The safest thing to do is put used masks and gloves into a plastic bag when you take them off and seal them. Then, when you’re back at home, throw the bag away into a closed bin.

• Place all used PPE into garbage bags and tie securely when full before putting them into the residual waste bin of your household.

• Never put any PPE (i.e. gloves, masks, wipes, cloths) in your recycling bins, as they cannot be recycled through conventional recycling facilities. 

You cannot recycle disposable masks, as they are functionally incompatible with curbside recycling, since they are made from different materials that cannot be easily separated. Face masks usually consist of metal for the nose piece, cotton and elastic for the ear loops and melt-blown polypropylene for the main structure that covers the mouth and nose. Moreover, used face masks are also considered medically toxic and could pose a health risk to workers on the sorting line at recycling facilities if carrying a virus.

• Health care waste in general, whether produced during medical (care of confirmed COVID-19 patients) or non-medical use (for preventive purposes in public areas), is considered contaminated and a source of infection. 

• Used face masks and gloves are considered medically toxic and could pose a health risk to anyone handling them (that are not the original owners of the masks).

• When face masks and gloves are discarded as litter, they can break down into smaller pieces under the influence of weathering, ultraviolet radiation and abrasion, causing microplastic pollution (Aragaw, 2020).

REDUCING MEDICAL WASTE ON A HOUSEHOLD LEVEL

When it comes to sustainable approaches to PPE, a good course of action would be choosing reusable products, rather than buying disposable ones: for example, face masks made out of cotton, reusable face shields, refillable sanitiser bottles etc. These can provide more sustainable alternatives to single-use products. 

Ideally, machine washable masks and biodegradable gloves are the best combinations to use for environmentally friendly PPE. Cloth masks can be properly washed, disinfected, dried and reused. However, we should be aware that both the cycles of production and distribution and the actual number of uses define the sustainability of a product.

COTTON MASKS VERSUS DISPOSABLE SURGICAL MASKS:

MASKS: SUSTAINABILITY CONSIDERATIONS

When considering the sustainability of using fabric face masks, we should be aware that a cotton mask, that is used too little, might be less sustainable than a disposable surgical mask. This is due to the greenhouse gas balance, resource, energy and water consumption, as well as the overall environmental impact of the production, use and disposal of both a disposable surgical mask and a fabric mask made of cotton. 

Since fabric masks have a very high environmental impact during manufacturing, a study carried out by the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology recommends for cloth face masks be used at least 20 times before discarding.  In terms of sustainability, you should choose cloth masks made of organically grown cotton or some other efficient fabrics, if available. Additionally, when the masks are produced and sold locally, their carbon footprint will likely be lower.

WHAT IS THE IDEAL REUSABLE FACE MASK?

According to the USA’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, although the filtration effectiveness of cloth masks is generally lower than that of medical masks and respirators, cloth masks still provide protection, when well designed and used correctly. In general, it is advised that they are used for preventive purposes only and when one is not ill nor has any symptoms of infection.

Generally, physicians advise against using clear shield-like face masks, which are different from face shields, since they have gaps around the face. As a consequence, these types of masks do not provide the same protection compared to wearing a surgical or multilayered cloth mask. 

If choosing to wear a cloth mask, these are the rules or criteria to look out for when shopping for reusable cloth masks, which can be considered effective against the novel coronavirus:

• Choose masks that are made of multiple layers of tightly woven, breathable fabric that completely cover your nose and mouth and fit snugly against the sides of your face and don’t have gaps. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that fabric masks should have a 3 layer structure, each layer performing a specific role: 1) an innermost layer of a hydrophilic material, 2) an outermost layer made of hydrophobic material 3) a middle hydrophobic layer, which has been shown to enhance filtration or retain droplets.

• Have a nose wire to prevent air from leaking out of the top of the mask.

• The mask should block light when held up to a bright light source.

• The masks should also resist getting damaged or changing shape after being laundered and dried.

• A cloth mask can be combined with a fitter or brace, and it can also be combined with a disposable mask underneath for additional protection in highly risky situations.

Do not buy and use masks with exhalation valves or vents or masks that are made of a single layer or masks made of thin fabric that doesn’t block light.

CARING FOR YOUR REUSABLE MOUTH-NOSE PROTECTION

When you decide to utilize reusable mouth-nose protection, it is necessary to follow handling guidelines that ensure that you get an adequate level of protection. Moreover, when considering sustainability, correct handling of the product will ensure that you can get a sufficiently high number of uses out of the product in order to offset the environmental costs of its production. 

HOW TO CARE FOR YOUR REUSABLE CLOTH FACE MASK

• Reusable masks should be washed at least daily or whenever they get dirty. 

• If your mask is wet or dirty from sweat, saliva, make-up, or other liquids or substances, keep it in a sealed plastic bag until you can wash it.

• Reusable masks can be washed in the washing machine with your regular laundry, so you can use regular laundry detergent and the appropriate settings according to the fabric label.

• You can also hand wash your mask with tap water and laundry detergent or soap. Rinse thoroughly with clean water to remove detergent or soap.

• After washing, hang your mask in direct sunlight to dry completely. If you cannot hang it in direct sunlight, hang or lay it flat and let it dry completely.

HOW TO CLEAN & DISINFECT REUSABLE FACE SHIELDS

As a general rule, it is important to always follow the manufacturer’s instructions. However, in case the producer does not provide the user with such instructions, consider to following this advice:

• While wearing a clean pair of gloves, carefully wipe the inside, followed by the outside of the face shield or goggles using a clean cloth saturated with neutral detergent solution or cleaner wipe.

• Carefully wipe the outside of the face shield or goggles using a wipe or clean cloth saturated with disinfectant solution.

• Wipe the outside of the face shield or goggles with clean water or alcohol to remove residue.

• Fully dry (air dry or use clean absorbent towels).

• Remove gloves and perform hand hygiene.

SUSTAINABLE PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT

If you need to renew your protective equipment, make smart choices and opt for sustainable alternatives, whenever the situation allows. In the following we list what to watch out for when you do your shopping:

SUSTAINABLE FACE MASK OPTIONS AROUND THE WORLD

If you are in need of inspiration for sustainable brands producing face masks, we have put together the following list, many of the brands referenced are located in Europe. 

GLOVES

Same as facemasks, surgical single-use gloves often end up in a landfill, where they remain for about 100 years since they are made of synthetic rubber.

The USA Centers for Disease Control (CDC) does not view wearing gloves as a necessary form of protection from COVID-19 in most daily life situations, for example when running errands. So, as a strategy to reduce the waste created by the use of disposable gloves, instead of using gloves, have everyone in your household wash hands often, especially when returning from outside activities. 

However, there are situations where wearing gloves is recommended, especially when caring for someone who is sick or when cleaning. In those cases, in order to mitigate the environmental impact of single-use gloves, more sustainable alternatives would be preferable. From an environmental point of view, an ideal pair of sustainable gloves would be made of a material with two key attributes: reusability and Biodegradability →. 

Meditech Gloves is one of the companies stepping up to the challenge of creating surgical gloves using natural rubber, which can biodegrade 100 times faster than the widely used synthetic, petroleum-based rubber options. According to the inventor of sustainable rubber gloves, Krzysztof Koziol, this kind of gloves can completely biodegrade within a year and more tests could cut this down to about a month. 

At the household level, plant-based disposable gloves could provide a sustainable alternative as they are to be disposed of via the organic bin, being 100% Compostable →. 

For example, Plantvibes, a startup from Germany, offers organic disposable gloves made of corn. The product is also climate-neutral and carbon neutral, as the company compensates for the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions caused by transport by investing in projects that save the same amount of CO2 The gloves are also waterproof and heat resistant up to max. 40°C.

HAND-SANITISER

If you are searching for an eco-friendly hand sanitiser, here are some factors to consider when shopping: 

• Containers and packaging that are 100% Recyclable → and reusable (some brands offer plastic-free solutions, by preferring aluminium or glass bottles to those made of plastic)

• Refill options present a creative and sustainable way to prevent container waste and minimise packaging waste while keeping loyal customers. 

• Focus on ingredients: in order for the sanitiser to be effective at killing microbes, it should contain a minimum of 60% alcohol.

• Favour brands that offer Carbon-Neutral → shipping.

In a nutshell, a sustainable hand-sanitiser brand will display attention to details such as Animal Testing →, safe ingredients, zero-waste packaging, and refill options.

SUSTAINABLE HAND SANITISER OPTIONS

If you need inspiration for some brands that meet the criteria we put forward, we compiled the following list of products, plus its key features:

1. Beauty Kitchen Organic Vegan Hand Sanitiser (Vegan, Cruelty and Microplastic Free)

2. Eco Tomorrow Natural Spray Hand Sanitiser (Vegan, Cruelty Free, Recyclable sugarcane plastics packaging)

3. Paume Moisturizing Antibacterial Hand Gel (Vegan, Cruelty Free and Plastic Neutral Certified)

4. EO Organic Hand Sanitiser Spray (Safe, natural, organic, and sustainably-farmed ingredients, B Corporation certified) 

5. Organic Bath Co. Hand Sanitisers (Vegan and Cruelty-Free)

6. By Humankind Moisturising Hand Sanitiser (Vegan, gluten-free,ethically-made and carbon neutral shipping)

7. Purdy & Figg Hand Sanitiser Sprays (Vegan, 100% pure and natural oils, glass packaging)

8. Nikau Botanical Hand Sanitiser (all natural, small batch, glass packaging)

9. Cleancult Foaming Hand Sanitizer (Zero-waste and zero plastic refillable system, plant-delivered, non-toxic formulas)

10. Haan Hydrating Hand Sanitiser (Refill eco pouches available, 20% of profits fund water projects in developing countries)

Managing Household Waste during Covid-19

During this critical time, you may find that household waste is piling up, either due to simply spending more time at home (willingly or unwillingly due to stay at home orders), adapting your routines or even through upgrading and organising your living space.

Below we’ve got some tips for managing household waste during the current pandemic. The advice we compiled is meant to help you keep your space comfortable and clean, as well as keep an eye on the environmental effects of new patterns of consumption behaviours.

The most straightforward method of waste management during this pandemic is to reduce producing waste materials by reusing old materials and avoiding Disposable Products →.

1. Make sure you’re updated with your local government’s policies regarding recycling and waste collection. 

2. Pay additional attention to special policies regarding waste generated within households with COVID-19 infected patients, as many governments will recommend not sorting waste at all during periods of disease, thus treating your recyclables as trash.

3. Keep proper hygiene when handling and disposing of used PPE. Bear in mind that used PPE is considered infectious and cannot be recycled, so it needs to be disposed of in the residual waste bin of your household.

4. Convenient and hassle-free, take-away food is a big culprit for the increased consumption of single-use plastics, so try to make a healthy habit out of eating home-cooked meals. 

5. If you decide to order takeaway, you could consider ordering from shops just around the corner. In this way you can support local businesses and also be able to pick up the food yourself, thus minimising the carbon footprint of the delivery service, and being able to bring your own reusable containers along.

6. Look out for innovative takeaway options such as the VYTAL reusable containers. Vytal takes pride in offering a “digital reusable packaging system that finally offers every hungry person, restaurateur, supermarket and delivery service an affordable and sustainable alternative to disposable and plastic waste.”

7. Try to reduce as much as possible the amount of packaging and other plastic products, especially Single-Use Plastics →. We have compiled in the next section an additional list to help you tackle plastic consumption during the pandemic.

How to Reduce Plastic Consumption & Use during COVID-19

Plastic products have become ubiquitous during the pandemic. We should be mindful of the ways we rely on plastic and take action to reduce its negative impact.

As a rule of thumb, the best way to minimise your Carbon Footprint → is by Minimising Plastic Use → in general. Here are some suggestions on how you can achieve this:

1. Use reusable PPE. We’ve already included numerous examples of reusable face masks brands, as well as sustainable alternatives for hand sanitiser bottles and gloves. 

2. Bring your own Reusable Bag → to the store when shopping, rather than buying new plastic bags every single time.

3. Reuse disposable bags, as during the pandemic some disposable bag use might be inevitable. Do not throw away these bags after just one use. Instead, you can use these to line your trash can or to pick up your dog’s poop.

4. Reuse and repurpose single-use containers from takeaway food. You could for example use them as plant pots, or for the organisation in your drawers (like putting all your cables neatly so they will not entangle anymore), or keeping arts and craft supplies. If your local shops sell cleaning products in bulk, you could repurpose these as containers of the said cleaning products. 

5. Buy and carry with you a reusable water bottle whenever you are out and about.

6. When shopping for groceries, favour products with minimal and/or sustainable packaging. We have devoted an entire piece to Sustainable Food Packaging →.

7. When possible, buy local, as there is a high chance there will be less packaging because transporting the products to the point of sale is more streamlined.

8. If you decide to order food as a takeaway, look for eco-friendly takeout options, such as bringing your own Tupperware to pick up takeout food, or asking for compostable boxes, and specifically asking for no cutlery and napkins. 

9. Shop sustainable brands. More businesses are indeed incorporating sustainability into their products now and it could be quite overwhelming. Here is our guide to help you decide on which Sustainable Fashion Brands → work for you.  

10. Shop for second-hand items. When opting for secondhand items though, make sure that you thoroughly clean and disinfect them before using them. Learn more about Second-hand Fashion →.

11. When shopping online, look out for “Ship in the least boxes” options for multiple orders, and recycle if possible the packaging your order arrives into.

Waste Generated by the COVID-19 Pandemic - The Challenge

The COVID-19 pandemic has majorly disrupted societies across the world. Not only has it caused millions of deaths worldwide and challenged health systems and economies on a global scale, but it also has a far-reaching impact on the environment and climate. The latter is originating especially from the increased use of single-use plastics and has placed more pressure on resource extraction, production, transport, waste handling and littering.

COVID-19’S ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT - SOME ILLUSTRATIVE DATA

The measures are taken to control the spread of the novel coronavirus and the slowdown of economic activities have significant effects on the environment. The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to an unprecedented need, consumption, and release/ disposability of single-use plastic products - not only from healthcare facilities, quarantine facilities, home and hotel isolation facilities but also from regular consumers’ homes and workplaces.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) has put forward data illustrating the negative environmental impact of the production and consumption of face masks: 

• Greenhouse Gas Emissions → related to the manufacture, transport and waste treatment of single-use face masks range from 14 to 33.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per tonne of masks, depending on the masks’ composition. 

• EEA also assessed that an additional 2.4 to 5.7 million tonnes of CO2, above the business-as-usual level, has been emitted in Europe in the 6-month period from April to September 2020 ( a 118 % increase).

Increased CO2 emissions were expected in the subsequent period. Moreover, EEA also highlights that other impacts from single-use face masks, such as human toxicity potential and acidification potential, show the same trend.

A SURGE IN BIOMEDICAL WASTE

Due to the airborne nature of the coronavirus causing COVID-19, there has been a surge in the demand for and consumption of personal protective equipment (PPE), including gloves, protective medical suits, masks, face shields, safety glasses, hand sanitiser bottles, medical tests kits and plastics shoes.

Governments and healthcare providers have advised health workers not to reuse their personal protective equipment, leading to tonnes of plastic medical waste being generated daily. In line with the recommendation and stringent directives of wearing facemasks in order to reduce the level of human-to-human transmission, millions of facemasks have been produced, used and discarded daily.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created more biomedical waste in the form of waste plastics. According to the WHO, on average, about 0.2 and 0.5 kg/day of hazardous biomedical wastes are generated by low-income and high-income countries, respectively (WHO, 2018). 

Just to quote a few numbers that illustrate the immensity of PPE consumption, regional estimates indicate that Asia is projected to generate the highest quantity (1.8 billion) of discarded facemasks per day, followed by Europe with 445 million, Africa 411 million, Latin America and the Caribbean with 380, North America with 244 million, and Oceania with 22 million facemasks per day [Benson & al. 2020]. 

A SURGE IN PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AT THE HOUSEHOLD LEVEL

In addition to medical waste, there has been a surge in the consumption of single-use takeout plastics, food and polyethylene goods packages. This is a consequence of the fact that restaurants have had to switch their businesses to take-way and food delivery due to the months-long lockdown measures and stay-at-home orders which have been imposed worldwide.  

An additional increase in the use of plastic and other single-use packaging is linked to e-commerce parcel deliveries, which increased considerably during lockdowns. As most physical shops were forced to stay closed, consumers shifted their consumption patterns. Only shops selling essential goods and services were allowed to operate normally during the strictest periods of lockdown in many countries.

EEA is linking the increase in e-commerce to the increase in the volume of plastics used in packaging, resulting in an estimated 11400 to 17600 tonnes of additional plastic packaging used by the sector due to COVID-19 from March to September 2020. 

The consumption of single-use plastics is problematic, not only for the environment but also for human health. Single-use plastics contribute to the littering of ecosystems and increased pollution. In fact, it is estimated that currently, 49% of marine litter on beaches originates from single-use plastic products.

Moreover, single-use plastic products that litter our environment can leach out harmful chemicals such as phthalates. Once they enter our soil, water, and atmosphere, they can contaminate the food that it comes into contact with, which could eventually be ingested by humans and animals.

To learn more about the Dangers of Single-Use Plastics →, as well as strategies for Reducing Your Consumption of Single-Use Plastic → products, check out our comprehensive manual entry on Single-Use Plastic Alternatives →.

CHALLENGES FOR MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

As a result of the unprecedented rise in the amount of medical and domestic wastes generated during the pandemic, essential municipal services such as waste collection and treatment have experienced increased pressure. Unfortunately, this has led to altered strategies for municipal solid management. Due to the pandemic, many countries postponed waste recycling activities to reduce the transmission of viral infection. For example, the United Kingdom, Italy, and other European countries prohibited infected residents from sorting their waste.

The increase in consumption of single-use PPE has also led to a surge in the number of discarded single-use surgical and face masks and latex gloves, which are seen littering the streets and roads, dumpsites, beaches, parks etc. 

There is a well-founded deep worry that COVID-19 will reverse the momentum of a years-long global battle to cut down on single-use plastic. 

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