The coronavirus pandemic has increased the need for personal protective equipment, and with the rise in usage, comes the increase in waste. Disposal of used equipment such as masks and gloves are now a concern with the effect they may have on the environment.
A French environmental organization has recently observed the cluttering of several masks and gloves. The wastes were left alongside other wastes within the Mediterranean sea.
Consequences of protection from the virus
Opération Mer Propre which means "operation clean sea", a Non-Government Organization (NGO), recently collected nine surgical masks and 14 lates gloves near coastal Côte d'Azur resort on the sea-bed.
The organization is actively working to maintain the cleanliness of bodies of water by removing waste from the Mediterranean sea near the Antibes region located south of France, as reported by News18.
The news comes as the world has started to feel the effects of reduced pollution and has begun to heal. Improper disposal of wastes from the use of personal protective equipment is detrimental to the planet's health.
Some members of the plastic industry are also taking advantage of the predicament by pushing to suspend or rollback environmental measures. These efforts were set in place to reduce plastic pollution. The move comes as "an abundance of caution" in the reinstatement of plastic use.
According to Forbes, safety and cross-contaminations concerns have caused widespread repeals of single-use plastic bags. This resulted in the increased demand for bottled water, PPE, plastic bags, as well as packaging.
An experiment which was published in The New England Journal of Medicine revealed that plastics would enable the coronavirus to live for a longer duration than on any other material.
The researchers found that the virus becomes much more stable on plastic and stainless steel when compared to copper and cardboard. The material enables the infectious virus to live up to 72 hours. The data suggest that the use of plastic bags is riskier than paper bags.
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A dire result
As a result of the pandemic, recycling and municipal waste services in the United States and other parts of the world have been significantly limited which could result in the extra plastic being used today not being recycled.
The possibility of temporary rollbacks of plastic use becoming permanent will undermine the effort to reduce the use of these materials and increase the pollution they cause to bodies of water in the future, says Ocean Conservancy scientists.
The organization said that plastic bags are causing disastrous effects on the ocean and its wildlife. Volunteers who collect waste consider them as one of the top 10 things they see during cleanups.
Plastics are also one of the deadliest types of marine debris that lasts for decades or even longer, threatening marine animals and infrastructure.
The founder of Opération Mer Propre, Laurent Lombard, told BBC that while it was common to see plastic and glass bottles, food wrappers, and other humans waste materials, masks and gloves were relatively new to the scene.
"These masks, we haven't had them for long, and we're going to have billions, so I say watch out, it's the beginnings of a new type of pollution," he warned.
An ongoing survey conducted by the Louisiana State University professor Mark Benfield revealed that gloves would more likely end up as disregarded waste along with other personal protective equipment items.
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