Table 2.

Plastic waste generated during COVID-19 pandemic

Country	Plastic waste generated during the pandemic	References
China	•In Wuhan, medical waste increased to 240 ton per day (t/d) from 40 t/d, beyond the incineration capacity of maximum 49 t/d •In Hubei Province, medical waste generation increased to 370% •The total medical waste in China was estimated to be 207 kilo ton from 20 January to 31 March, 2020	(Klemeš et al., 2020; Tang, 2020)(Klemeš et al., 2020)(Klemeš et al., 2020)
USA	•A years’ worth of medical waste may have been generated in first two months of COVID-19 outbreak •70% increase in the number of plastic items were found per ocean cleanup during COVID-19 •Illegally dumped waste increased nearly 19% in the first seven months of 2020 alone in L.A.	(Bondaroff and Cooke, 2020)(Hernandez, 2020)(Hernandez, 2020)
Bangladesh	•Record shows a total of 14,500 ton of hazardous plastic waste, with about 3076 ton in Dhaka city only was generated during the 1st month of pandemic outbreak •With the generation rate of 483 ton per day COVID-19 related waste, Bangladesh ranked first among the Asian countries	(ESDO, 2020)(Parashar and Hait, 2021)
Philippines	•Ranked second (280 ton per day) in the category of most COVID-19 waste generated among the Asian countries	(Parashar and Hait, 2021)
Singapore	•Take-out and home-delivery grocery services contributed an additional 1400 tons of plastic waste during 2-month lockdown	(Bengali, 2020)
UK	•So-called fly-tipping (illegal waste disposal) increased by 300% during the pandemic.	(Duer, 2020)
Indonesia	•In Jakarta, within two months after the first COVID-19 positive case, medical waste has increased to 12,740 tons.	(Kojima et al., 2020)
Malaysia	•In Kuala Lumpur, 154 tons of additional amount of medical waste generated per day during the pandemic.	(Haque et al., 2021)
Thailand	•In Bangkok, 210 tons of additional amount of medical waste generated per day during the pandemic.	(Haque et al., 2021)
Vietnam	•In Hanoi, 160 tons of additional amount of medical waste generated per day during the pandemic.	(Haque et al., 2021)
Italy	•Around 70,000 kg of plastic waste will be generated per day from the used facemasks in the lockdown period.	(Cesaro and Pirozzi, 2020)
Spain	•In Catalonia, medical waste generation increased by 350%.	(Klemeš et al., 2020)
South Korea	•Around 295 tons of plastic containing medical wastes were generated during February-March 2020.	(Rhee, 2020)