Plastic pollution during COVID-19: Plastic waste directives and its long-term impact on the environment

Abstract

Majority of the million tons of plastic produced each year is being disposed after single-use. Plastic bottle, bags, food containers, gloves, and cup that end up in landfills and environment could linger for hundreds to thousands of years. Moreover, COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), will also exacerbate the global plastic pollution as the use of personal protective equipment (PPE i.e., gloves, masks) became mandatory to prevent the spread of the virus. Plastic eventually breaking down in micro & nanoscopic bits due to physical or chemical or biological actions in the environment, can enter animal and human food web. So, plastic management programs need to be more robust with a focus on the prevention of the micro and nanoplastics entrance into the environment and food web. In the present pandemic situation, it is even more necessary to know about how much plastic waste is being generated and how different countries are coping up with their plastic waste management. In this review, we have elucidated how global plastic production rise during COVID-19 and how it would contribute to short and long-term impacts on the environment. Plastic pollution during the pandemic will increase the GHS emissions in the incineration facilities. Improper disposal of plastics into the oceans and lands would endanger the marine species and subsequently human lives. We have also assessed how the increased plastic pollution will aggravate the micro and nanoscale plastic problem, which have now become an emerging concern. This review will be helpful for people to understand the plastic usage and its subsequent consequences in the environment in a pandemic like COVID-19.

Keywords: Long-term impacts; Micro and nanoscale plastics; Personal protective equipment; SARS-CoV-2; Single-use plastic.

Graphical abstract

Fig. 1

Hypothetical past, present and future worldwide plastic production. Plastic production is predicted to increase to 600 million tons in 2040 based on the data available of plastic production rate between 2008 and 2019 (Tiseo, 2021) and assuming a linear trend. However, based on table 1 data, it has been estimated that COVID-19 caused a drastic increase of plastic production to around 698 million tons in only 2020. Detailed calculation is provided in the SI.

Fig. 2

Plastic Waste Directive; Fate and Transport of Micro and Nanoscale plastics in the Environment.(Bråte et al., 2017)(Sanchez et al., 2014)(Corradini et al., 2019)(Danopoulos et al., 2020)(Kühn et al., 2020)(Mason et al., 2016)(Zhang and Liu, 2018)(Ziajahromi et al., 2017)