The shadow pandemic of single use personal protective equipment plastic waste: A blue print for suppression and eradication

Single use personal protective equipment (PPE) has played a major role in preventing COVID-19 infection. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, over 4 million tonnes of polypropylene PPE waste has been disposed into the environment in uncontrolled manner causing significant and long-term ecol...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Nghiem, Long D., Iqbal, Hafiz M.N., Zdarta, Jakub
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Published by Elsevier Ltd. 2021
Materias:
Article
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8387200/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cscee.2021.100125
Descripción
Sumario:Single use personal protective equipment (PPE) has played a major role in preventing COVID-19 infection. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, over 4 million tonnes of polypropylene PPE waste has been disposed into the environment in uncontrolled manner causing significant and long-term ecological damage. This work also highlights several effective measures to alleviate the problem of polypropylene PPE waste. Short-term measures include knowledge sharing to minimise the use of single use PPE and to adapt innovative polypropylene recycling technologies. To prepare for a future pandemic, it is also essential to phase out polypropylene PPE using natural based polymers.

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