An emerging source of plastic pollution: Environmental presence of plastic personal protective equipment (PPE) debris related to COVID-19 in a metropolitan city

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented surge of production, consumption, and disposal of personal protective equipment (PPE) including face masks, disposable gloves, and disinfectant wipes, which are often made of single use plastic. Widespread public use of these items has imposed pressure on municipalities to properly collect and dispose of potentially infectious PPE. There has been a lack of structured monitoring efforts to quantify the emerging trend of improperly disposed of PPE debris. In this study, we present a baseline monitoring survey to describe the spatial distribution of PPE debris during the COVID-19 pandemic from the metropolitan city of Toronto, Canada. Our objectives were to: (1) quantify PPE debris types among surveyed areas and; (2) identify PPE debris densities and accumulation of surveyed areas. A total of 1306 PPE debris items were documented, with the majority being disposable gloves (44%), followed by face masks (31%), and disinfecting wipes (25%). Of the face masks, 97% were designed for single use while only 3% were reusable. Of the surveyed locations, the highest daily average densities of PPE debris were recorded in the large and medium-sized grocery store parking lots and the hospital district (0.00475 items/m², 0.00160 items/m², and 0.00133 items/m² respectively). The two surveyed residential areas had the following highest PPE densities (0.00029 items/m² and 0.00027 items/m²), while the recreational trail had the lowest densities (0.00020 items/m²). Assuming a business-as-usual accumulation, an estimated 14,298 PPE items will be leaked as debris in just the surveyed areas annually. To facilitate proper disposal of PPE debris by the public we recommend development of municipal efforts to improve PPE collection methods that are informed by the described PPE waste pathways.

Keywords: COVID-19; Personal protective equipment (PPE); Plastics; SARS-CoV-2; Single-use plastics.

Graphical abstract

Fig. 1

COVID-19 related personal protective equipment (PPE) debris recorded during surveys: (A) surgical face mask, (B) N95 respirator face mask, (C) dust face mask, (D) reusable face mask, (E) associated PPE packaging (i.e. disinfectant wipe container), (F) nitrile glove, (G) polyethylene glove, (H) nitrile glove, (I) vinyl glove and, (J) disinfectant wipe.

Fig. 2

Personal protective equipment (PPE) debris recorded from surveys: (A) six survey locations and the total number of PPE debris items recorded (e.g., face masks, disposable gloves, disinfectant wipes and associated PPE packaging) identified from each surveyed location are shown. Data points with an error radius >100 m were removed for clearer visualization. (B) Cumulative density (items/m²) of the combined PPE debris items for each survey location and, (C) cumulative density (items/m²) of each PPE debris items (e.g., disposable gloves, face masks and disinfectant wipes) for each survey location.

Fig. 3

PPE types by survey locations: (A) large grocery store, (B) medium-sized grocery store, (C) long residential area, (D) short residential area, (E) recreational trail and, (F) hospital district. Data Sources: City of Toronto Open Data Portal and Marine Debris Tracker. Data points with an error radius >100 m were removed for clearer visualization.

Fig. 4

Proportions of PPE debris types identified during surveys such as: (A) disposable glove materials; (B) masks types and, (C) single-use versus reusable mask types.

Fig. 5

Total PPE debris density across all six survey locations by: (A) daily rates and, (B) cumulatively over the duration of the study.