Table 3.
Endeavors to control the amplified amount of plastic waste generated during COVID-19.
| Country | Changes in plastic management plan | References |
|---|---|---|
| USA | Plastic wastes are ending up in the country's landfills often after being exposed to various treatment processes, including autoclaving and incineration. | (Barndollar, 2021) |
| Canada | Majority of PPE disposed is either i) disinfected and landfilled, or ii) incinerated. No sorting of recycling items coming to landfill. | (“COVID-19: A waste management roadblock,” 2020, “Guide to waste management from the health and social services network,” 2017) |
| China | Wuhan city authorities implemented mobile incineration facilities which were upgraded from 50 t/day to over 263 t/day to manage the 240 t medical waste generated per day. | (Klemeš et al., 2020; Yu et al., 2020) |
| UK | In UK, the recyclable waste was collected once a week in double-layered bags, COVID-19 labeled, and independently stored.
|
(“Guidelines for Handling, Treatment and Disposal of Waste Generated during Treatment/Diagnosis/Quarantine of COVID-19 Patients,” 2020, “Waste Management Prepared for the Epidemic Caused by the Coronavirus,” 2020) |
| Bangladesh | Without having proper incineration facilities, authorities burnt their wastes in their backyards or mix them with the regular city corporation bins.
|
(Shammi and Tareq, 2021) |
| Norway | Norway's government has permitted a temporary change in landfill permits and allowed to transport wastes elsewhere to deal with the medical waste surge, if necessary. | (“Municipal Waste Management and COVID-19,” n.d.) |
| Spain | In Spain, it was recommended that cement plants can co-incinerate medical wastes upon request to ramp up processing capacity. | (“Municipal Waste Management and COVID-19,” n.d.) |
| South Korea | In south Korea, the medical wastes were needed to be taken out for incineration on daily basis as opposed to before pandemic when it could have been stored up to 7 days. Wastes including the used masks are incinerated or landfilled without any recycling. | (Rhee, 2020) |
| Nigeria | Special waste collection bins to collect disposable PPEs were provided in buildings (residential, government and hospitals), and public places. These should be emptied daily, decontaminated and disposed in landfills. | (Benson et al., 2021b; “Coronavirus (COVID-19) Guideline,” 2020) |
| Portugal | The Portuguese Environmental Agency recommended that all potentially contaminated PPE used by ordinary citizens should be disposed in sealed and leak-proof garbage bags as mixed wastes (not recyclables) and should be incinerated or landfilled. | (Ambiente, 2020) |
| India | Indian municipalities are following a flawed system of medical waste disposal and management, which mostly rely on landfilling and local burning strategies. COVID-19 plastic waste such as googles, hazmat suits, nitrile gloves should be disinfected/shredded/recycled and used masks, head caps, shoe covers must be incinerated. | (Corburn et al., 2020; “Guidelines for Handling, Treatment and Disposal of Waste Generated during Treatment/Diagnosis/Quarantine of COVID-19 Patients,” 2020) |
| Finland | In Finland, wastes are treated by crushers and then in waste incineration plants. | (“Waste Management Prepared for the Epidemic Caused by the Coronavirus,” 2020) |
| Italy | In Italy, COVID-19 plastic waste must be collected in sealed double layered bags with no need to separate the waste on source collection. However, non-impacted COVID-19 plastic waste must be collected employing separate collection system. | (“Prime Indicazioni Genarali Per La Gestione Rifiuti – Emergenza Covid-19,” 2020) |
| Sri Lanka | In Sri Lanka, plastic waste should be segregated at the source itself using colored-coded containers. All the contaminated waste including plastic-based PPEs shall be incinerated or autoclaved following proper safety protocol. | (Mashood et al., 2020) |