COVID-19 : A Potential Environmental Hazard

 

Six months ago, we were talking of plastic-less India and plastic free world for clean environment and save the Mother Earth. Now, that has gone out of the window. The corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to an abrupt collapse of waste management chains. All the affected countries are experiencing a massive increase of medical waste by 4-5 times from their original volume. Meanwhile, the widespread lockdown has caused a substantial increase in domestic waste in the urban areas. These large amounts of waste require collection and recycling, both of which are compromised as a result of manpower shortages and efforts to enforce infection control measures.  Safely managing medical and domestic waste is crucial to successfully containing the disease. Mis-management can also lead to increased environmental pollution. All countries facing excess waste should evaluate their management systems to incorporate disaster preparedness and resilience. The governments need to think this aspect of waste management parallelly with the COVID-19 crisis as it will cause a long-lasting ecological hazard. Disrupted services have even led to waste mis-management increases of 300% in some rural communities. With fewer options available, traditional waste management practices such as landfills and incineration are replacing more sustainable measures such as recycling, with adverse effects on the environment. As a result temporary storage of waste and incineration ash at sites that have not been granted a permit, further threatens the environment. Medical waste is considerably on the rise. For example, hospitals in Wuhan, the epicenter of Covid-19,  produced an average of 240 metric tons of medical waste per day during the outbreak, compared to their previous average of fewer than 50 tons. In other countries such as the USA, India and Brazil, there has been an increase in garbage from personal protective equipment such as masks and gloves by 5-10 times. This tsunami of medical waste cannot be contained till an effective and efficient waste management protocol is put in place.

To address the overflow of medical waste, India and other affected countries should install mobile treatment systems near hospitals and health care centers. The design and analysis of sustainable waste management chains, including logistics, recycling, and treatment technologies and policies, should be prioritized. To reduce the socio-economic and environmental impacts of waste management, the whole system must be considered, including waste generation, collection, transport, recycling and treatment, recovered resource use, and disposal of remains. Protecting waste management chains will help achieve sustainable cities and communities as outlined in the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The generation of organic and inorganic waste is indirectly accompanied by a wide range of environmental issues, such as soil erosion, deforestation, air, and water pollution.

 

Waste recycling has always been a major environmental problem of interest to all countries. Recycling is a common and effective way to prevent pollution, save energy, and conserve natural resources. As a result of the pandemic, many countries such as the USA have stopped recycling programs in some of their cities, as authorities have been concerned about the risk of COVID-19 spreading in recycling centers. In particularly affected European countries, waste management has been restricted. For example, Italy has prohibited infected residents from sorting their waste. Also, the industry has seized the opportunity to repeal disposable bag bans, even though single-use plastic can still harbor viruses and bacteria. On the other hand, the safe management of domestic waste could be critical during the COVID-19 emergency. Medical waste such as contaminated masks, gloves, used or expired medications, and other items can easily be mixed with domestic waste. However, they should be treated as hazardous waste and disposed of separately. Furthermore, this type of waste must be collected by specialized municipal operators or waste management operators. Along these same lines, the UN Environment Program urged governments to treat waste management, including medical, domestic, and other waste, as an urgent and essential public service to minimize possible secondary health and environmental effects.

 

Right now, health and safety have taken priority over the environment. The way we are consuming Personal Protection Equipment (PPE kits) like surgical masks, gloves and shoe covers – will have a negative impact. And not being responsive to something like this even after four months is a little alarming,” as per Indian Environmentalist Vimlendu Jha. PPEs are vital in battling the COVID-19 crisis, but need to be disposed daily, especially by healthcare workers. This waste is slowly piling up an environmental crisis. Delhi and other big cities in India are still lagging in the systematic collection and disposal of this waste, which further poses a risk to the health of sanitation workers. Delhi-based waste management expert Swati Singh Sambyal points to the CPCB report that indicates only 70 per cent of this waste is going to the incinerators. There is a still a gap of 30 per cent. Masks, gloves and PPEs have been found dumped outside the hospitals or even on the roads. There is no segregation taking place at the household level. Waste collectors have to sort it, and in doing so are directly exposed to the potentially infected material. And the collectors reside in congested and densely populated places. In case they are asymptomatic or infected, they will pass the virus onto the entire community in their vicinity. Finally, it may be assumed that COVID-19 will produce both positive and negative indirect effects on the environment, but the latter will be greater. Decreasing GHG(Green House Gases) concentrations during a short period is not a sustainable way to clean up our environment. Furthermore, the virus crisis brings other environmental problems that may last longer and maybe more challenging to manage if countries neglect the impact of the epidemic on the environment.

The way forward 

As per some experts’ view, when it comes to COVID-19 waste from hospitals and quarantines, it has to be kept in colour-coded double-layered bags and then disposed. Medical experts say that gloves made from poly vinyl chloride (PVC), glass and needles can’t be incinerated, but the masks, PPE kits are packed in yellow bags for incineration.  Most of the hospitals have their own incinerators, but COVID waste management varies from hospital to hospital. Since ACs are not operational, health workers have to change at least three PPE kits a day. With the number of cases increasing, more waste will be generated and treatment plants may fall short of capacity.  Cloth masks and cotton gloves can be used as they keep perspiration in check, but, N95 mask is not meant for COVID protection. WHO asked healthcare workers to wear N95, which has efficacy of trapping particles 300 nanometers or larger. The average size of COVID particle is 120 nanometers. We need antiviral masks to ensure complete safety. In response to COVID-19, hospitals, healthcare facilities and individuals are producing more waste than usual, including masks, gloves, gowns and other protective equipment that could be infected with the virus. There is also a large increase in the amount of single use plastics being produced. When not managed soundly, infected medical waste could be subject to uncontrolled dumping, leading to public health risks, and to open burning or uncontrolled incineration, leading to the release of toxins in the environment and to secondary transmission of diseases to humans. Other wastes can reach water sources and add to riverine and marine pollution.

 

The UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) COVID-19 Waste Management Factsheets outline UNEP advice to mitigate the adverse impacts of the pandemic on global environment: from how to safely manage the increase of waste produced in response to the crisis, to how to control releases of harmful chemicals in the atmosphere, land and water.

Environmentally sound management of medical waste is one of the key challenges during normal times in many countries. During emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic, these challenges are magnified because the amount of waste produced increases. This factsheet will help countries in assessing the quantity of infected waste that is potentially produced, and the available technologies that they could use to treat the waste.

As countries develop an inventory of the existing national waste management facilities, they select environmentally sound options for waste treatment using the UNEP Sustainability Assessment of Technologies (SAT) guidance on Best Available Technology and Best Environmental Practices (BAT/BEP).

Guidance on policy and legislation will help countries to have a stable legal and institutional basis to better respond to future waste emergencies such as the COVID-19, and to clarify measures to be taken.

COVID-19 will lead to a greater production and consumption of household and personal health related products that could be single-use and contain valuable resources like plastics, textiles, metals, and electronics. COVID-19 waste, and any other waste, must be collected and treated adequately to avoid littering or uncontrolled incineration causing impacts to human health, ecosystem quality, biodiversity, including impacts on soil, rivers, coastal lines and in the marine system.

Air quality is negatively impacted by environmentally unsound practices, such as open burning or other suboptimal waste management methods. Adhering to environmentally sound practices for waste management, especially COVID-19 waste, and maintaining high environmental standards and enforcement is essential.

As COVID-19 spreads to the developing world, with limited access to medical support, increased numbers of cases will have to self medicate at home. Proper management of household medical waste will therefore become key to stop further spread of the COVID-19 virus and avoid putting others, including waste workers, at risk.

Disaster and conflict affected countries and vulnerable humanitarian operations with limited capacity, poor infrastructure and resources are likely to face enormous problems in the event of COVID-19 spread and the need for safe, efficient and appropriate solutions for management of solid and hazardous contaminated wastes. This factsheet outlines how to manage this type of waste in the context of camps and camp-like settings as well as informal settlements.

Raw sewage, and partially-treated wastewater, is a vehicle for spreading diseases and a potential means for COVID-19 to spread faster, for example in areas where sanitation is poor, or where the communities are exposed to open-sewers and black water.  COVID-19 brings additional challenges with the increased use of medical products, masks and gloves made of plastics, textiles, and other single-use products that are discarded in the open environment or in existing drainage system, contributing to the already alarming amounts of plastics, micro-plastics, and microfibers pollution in wastewater.

 

          Like any other virus, Covid-19 is destined to co-exist with human race for a long time, as given to understand by WHO. Hence, a road map drawn up by UNEP needs to be adhered to in order to maximize the efficiency of existing waste management facilities of each nation affected by the pandemic.