An update of COVID-19 influence on waste management

Abstract

COVID-19 has been sweeping the world. The overall number of infected persons has been increased from 5 M in March 2020 to over 22 M in August 2020 and growing, which seems not to get its peak at the current stage. This has contributed to waste generation and different phases of challenges in waste management practices. The impacts including change in waste amount, composition, timing/frequency (temporal), distribution (spatial) and risk, which affects the handling and treatment practices. Recent impacts, challenges and developments on waste management in the response of COVID-19 have been assessed in this update. Singapore, the cities of Shanghai in China and Brno in the Czech Republic (a member state of the European Union), representing different pandemic development situation and also various cultural attitudes, are specifically analysed and discussed with current data. However, it should be noted that it is still fast developing. A varying trend in term of the waste amount is identified. Shanghai is showing a ~23% decline in household waste amount; however, Singapore is showing a ~3% increase, and Brno is showing a ~1% increase in household waste amount but ~40% decline in business and industrial waste. Manual sorting and recycling have been reported as restricted due to safety precaution. This is supported by the interview communication with ZEVO SAKO (the largest incineration plant in the Czech Republic). This study highlighted that the practices or measures at each place could serve as a guideline and reference. However, adaption is required according to the geographical and socioeconomic factors.

Keywords: COVID-19; Comparison study; Municipal solid waste; Recycling; Waste management.

Graphical abstract

Fig. 1

The expected trend of medical waste and MSW.

Fig. 2

Impacts and challenges of COVID-19 on waste management.

Fig. 3

Waste generation and its recycling rate from 2003 to 2019 in Singapore. (a) Total solid waste and overall recycling rate; (b) total plastic waste and plastic recycling rate.

Fig. 4

The changes in the waste amount in Shanghai in mid-June 2020 compared to June 2019.

Fig. 5

The changes in the waste amount in Shanghai in March 2020 compared to the average daily amount in 2019.

Fig. 6

The municipal solid waste amount handled by (a) ZEVO SAKO in 2019 and 2020 and (b) Kaiser Service. (However, there are the other handler companies, FCC, specialising on businesses and industry).