Indian Journal of Advances in Chemical Science, Volume: 9, Issue : 4, December 2021

ISSN No.: 2320-0898 (Print); 2320-0928 (Electronic)

DOI: 10.22607/IJACS.2021.904021

Abating Plastic Footprints of Covid-19: Strategies and Solution

Anshika Srivastava, Shweta Agarwal, Sonika Bhatia*

ABSTRACT

In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, increased utilization of single-use plastics along with their inadequate and inefficient waste management has translated into an environmental crisis of plastic accumulation. An online survey conducted on 253 people, to ascertain usage pattern of personal protective equipments (PPE), plastic food take away containers and plastic packaging materials before and during the COVID-19 pandemic shows daily usage of surgical masks by medical and nonmedical professionals increased by 63.16% and 49.64%, respectively. Monthly frequency of online shopping also increased from 48.22% to 52.96%. Although frequency of ordering in food reported a drop from 42.6% to 23.71 %. Large volumes of non-infected PPE continue to be dumped with municipal waste littering roadsides or being sent for incineration with biomedical waste. The existing incineration facilities have become overburdened leading to the accumulation of medical waste. Single-use plastics have a long degradation time of over 500 years and overtime degrade to yield microplastics. Increased use of PPEs could thus trigger the accumulation of microplastic in the environment within a short time. There is an urgent need to develop a circular model which includes segregation, sterilization, recycling, and repurposing of major portion of used PPE. Some innovative recycling efforts being made world over on pilot scale in the last 1 year have been reviewed. These baby steps need to be replicated on a large scale. Reduction in plastic pollution can also be achieved by the replacement of plastics obtained from petrochemicals with environmentally sustainable and biodegradable bioplastics.

Key words:  Bio plastic, COVID-19, Incineration recycling, Online survey, Plastic pollution, Single-use plastic.
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