Face masks, gloves, and wipes are made from multiple plastic fibers, primarily polypropylene, that will remain in the environment for decades, possibly centuries, fragmenting into smaller and smaller microplastics and nanoplastics.
FOR over a year now, Filipinos have been told to always don face masks and shields whenever they step out of their homes—especially when commuting or staying in crowded spaces.
At one point even, they were told to wear masks even inside their homes, especially if they experience the symptoms of flu and possibly early stages of Covid-19, for the safety of everyone.
Unfortunately, those masks and shields are not being disposed properly.
Often, they land on streets, in water bodies (rivers and canals) and public areas’ bins that cumulatively can expel virus as freely as the air that passes through them.
Despite all advises that face masks to be thrown away in garbage bins must be removed of their strings so that they do not get entangled and become a ball of trash, Filipinos still refuse to do it.
$4.65-M project
To address the situation, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is set to implement a project with a funding of $4.65 million.
The program is to be funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to address the waste problem brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
GEF is an independently operating financial organization that provides grants for projects related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), mercury, sustainable forest management, food security, and sustainable cities.
Earlier, the DENR has expressed concern about the increased generation of health care wastes.
DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) Director William Cuñado said the project involves the reduction of unintentionally- produced POPs (persistent organic pollutants) released to the environment.
Cunado said: “Management of mercury- added products and mercury waste from the healthcare sector will be addressed as these can have adverse effects on human health once released into the environment.”
“We also need to strengthen the management of non-pathological infectious waste generated from the health care system brought about by COVID-19. These trashes should be properly treated and disposed of to prevent the spread of the virus,” he added.
Cuñado said the project would also demonstrate low-cost and non-combustion treatment of waste suitable for small-scale and remote hospitals.
“This will be implemented in a cluster of health care facilities. The project will upgrade the capacity of waste service providers with best available technologies, techniques and practices. It will also link local governments to public and private investments,” he said.
Reducing mercury usage
The DENR is mandated to reduce the use of mercury under its obligation as a party to the Minamata Convention.
Human exposure to mercury has been linked to disorders of the central nervous system resulting in incognitive motor skills, kidney failure and birth defects.
The Philippines is also committed to the elimination of POPs under the Stockholm Convention.
The project will be implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and EMB as the lead executing agency.
Pathogens
The Department of Health said infectious waste is most likely to contain pathogens (bacteria, viruses, parasites or fungi) in sufficient concentration or quantity to cause diseases in susceptible hosts.
Medical waste generated at home can be put in the garbage bin. If extraordinary circumstances make the waste particularly hazardous, your healthcare provider may tell you otherwise, and pharmaceuticals merit special disposal, but most stuffs like bandages can be tossed in the garbage (not the recycling container.)
Proper disposal of masks
As the pandemic continues, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has renewed its call to discard used face masks properly to prevent risks of Covid-19 transmission.
“Protection against Covid-19 goes beyond following the minimum health protocols and the use of face masks and face shields. Our responsibility extends to the disposal of these healthcare items which are potentially contaminated,” said Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu.
Cimatu stressed the importance of responsibly discarding Covid-19 litter especially disposable face masks because these have now affected terrestrial and aquatic animals.
“We have seen that while face masks protect us, these have become the newest threat to animal life because of entanglement, and have added up to marine litter,” Cimatu said.
The DENR advised putting the used face masks in a separate container and properly label it as household healthcare waste, even specifically indicating it as face mask.”
“Let’s do this so we won’t jeopardize the lives of garbage collectors and whoever takes out trashes at home. If we will not practice this, and masks contaminate other solid wastes, these people will have the risk of getting infected by the virus and consequently infecting our own households in the end,” Cimatu said.
PPEs
Personal protective equipment is made of plastic and isn't recyclable. Now it’s being found everywhere on earth, including the oceans. The solution isn’t complicated: Throw them away.
A year ago, the idea that disposable face masks, gloves, and wipes could become global environmental pollutants was not a pressing concern. PPEs were seen as essential for preventing the spread of Covid-19. No one imagined just how much of it would be needed, for so long. Then production exploded—and now the litter is inescapable.
Globally, 65 billion gloves are used every month. The tally for face masks is nearly twice that—129 billion a month. That translates into 3 million face masks used per minute.
A separate study reports that 3.4 billion face masks or face shields are discarded every day.
Asia is projected to throw away 1.8 billion face masks daily, the highest quantity of any continent globally. China, with the world’s largest population (1.4 billion) discards nearly 702 million face masks daily.
All may be called disposable, because they’re cheap enough to be used once and then thrown away. But here’s the hitch: They don’t go away.
Disguised plastic
Face masks, gloves, and wipes are made from multiple plastic fibers, primarily polypropylene, that will remain in the environment for decades, possibly centuries, fragmenting into smaller and smaller microplastics and nanoplastics.
A single face mask can release as many as 173,000 microfibers per day into the seas, according to a study in Environmental Advances.
“They’re not going anywhere,” says Nicholas Mallos, who oversees the Ocean Conservancy’s marine debris program.
Littered face masks and gloves are blown like tumbleweeds into rivers and streams, which carry them to the seas.
Scientists have recorded their presence on South American beaches, river outlets in Jakarta Bay, in Bangladesh, on the coast of Kenya, and on the uninhabited Soko Islands in Hong Kong.
Discarded PPE has clogged street drains from New York City to Nairobi and has gummed up machinery in the municipal sewage system in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Face masks, gloves, and wipes are not recyclable in most municipal systems and should not be added to any household recycling bin.
Masks can contain a mix of paper and polymers, including polypropylene and polyester, that can’t be separated into pure streams of single materials for recycling. They are also so small they get caught in recycling machinery, causing breakdowns. (PPE used in medical facilities is disposed of as hazardous medical waste.)
Joana Prata, an environmental health researcher at Portugal’s University of Porto, and lead author of a study on pandemic repercussions on plastics, noted that citizens need clear information on use and disposal of PPE.
“This includes proper disposal as mixed waste in closed leak-proof bags,” she wrote.
A larger global problem gets worse
The problems created by PPE litter have arrived at a complicated time in the effort to curb plastic waste, the National Geographic reported.
The amount of plastic waste accumulating in the oceans is forecast to triple in the next 20 years, with no real solution on the horizon. If every corporate pledge to use more recycled plastics were kept, the shift would reduce that projected tripling by just 7 percent.
The pandemic has also seen increased production of disposable packaging, as consumers have bought more takeout food, and as bans of single-use plastics, including shopping bags, were suspended because of fears that reusables would spread the virus. At the same time, in part due to cuts in cash-strapped municipal budgets, a third of the recycling companies in the United States have been partially or completely shuttered.
The Geographic proposed the following: Don’t be a litterbug—even with PPE; Wear washable cloth masks when possible; Pack used PPE into a plastic bag, seal it, and put it out for the trash.
Tags: #environment, #pollution, #medicalwaste, #facemasks, #PPEs, #Covid19