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 non-
medical 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.