Challenges, opportunities, and innovations for effective solid waste management during and post COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The crisis brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic has altered global waste generation dynamics and therefore has necessitated special attention. The unexpected fluctuations in waste composition and quantity also require a dynamic response from policymakers. This study highlights the challenges faced by the solid waste management sector during the pandemic and the underlying opportunities to fill existing loopholes in the system. The study presents specific cases for biomedical waste, plastic waste, and food waste management - all of which have been a major cause of concern during this crisis. Further, without active citizen participation and cooperation, commingled virus-laden biomedical waste with the regular solid waste stream pose significant negative health and safety issues to sanitation workers. Single-use plastic usage is set to bounce back due to growing concerns of hygiene, particularly from products used for personal protection and healthcare purposes. It is expected that household food waste generation may reduce due to increased conscious buying of more non-perishable items during lockdown and due to concerns of food shortage. However, there is a chance of increase in food waste from the broken supply chains such as food items getting stuck on road due to restriction in vehicle movements, lack of workers in the warehouse for handling the food products, etc. The study also stresses the need for building localized resilient supply chains to counter such situations during future pandemics. While offering innovative solutions to existing waste management challenges, the study also suggests some key recommendations to the policymakers to help handle probable future pandemics if any holistically.

Keywords: Biomedical waste; COVID-19 waste; Food supply chain; Food waste; Plastic waste; Solid waste management.

Fig. 1

Different types of waste and persistence of coronavirus on its surface [Data were taken from (Kampf et al., 2020; van Doremalen et al., 2020) and illustration of the SARS-CoV-2 taken from (CDC, 2020)]. .

Fig. 2

The anticipated development of medical and MSW waste flow along with the epidemic/pandemic crisis. Taken with permission from Elsevier's license number 4,818,881,464,173 (Klemeš et al., 2020) [Business as Usual (BaU)].

Fig. 3

Construction of a pit for onsite waste burial during an emergency. This emergency burial pit can be used in poor and developing nations with a lack of access to biomedical waste treatment facilities or with facilities that are not well equipped to handle the quantum of waste coming due to COVID-19 pandemic Yves et al., 2014.

Fig. 4

Plastic waste by segment (Geyer et al., 2017), with an expected increase in the trend of medical, food packaging, and other plastic waste.

Fig. 5

Solid waste management trends and practices during the COVID-19 crisis.

Fig. 6

Waste management priorities to keep in mind during the pandemic.