- Facemasks choke the ocean
The increase in use of disposable gowns made from polyester or polyethylene, such as surgical masks, gloves, N95 respirators, face shields (polycarbonate or polyvinyl chloride), as well as hand sanitisation products with packaging made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for alcohol and other disinfectant solutions, has presented a new challenge in waste management which is also contributing towards the growing environmental consequences related to plastic use and follow-up waste.
Most of these PPE comprise single-use plastic. Therefore, it was found that during the peak of the outbreak, hospitals in Wuhan produced more than 240 tonnes of waste per day in comparison to the 40 tonnes that were earlier produced during normal circumstances, with most of the waste comprising plastic PPE.
The Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) indicates that on average, the seas around Sri Lanka carry about 33,000 tonnes of solid waste, including polythene and plastics that are carried across from the waterways. With the ongoing pandemic, the medical waste that is being dumped adjacent to the waterways, are also adding to the waste that is getting released to the ocean on a daily basis.
“Today, among the other waste and plastic debris that we happen to see on the beaches of Sri Lanka, we are seeing an increased amount of PPE surfacing as well. If one is to walk 100 metres on a beach stretch, they would easily be able to spot at least 70 disposable facemasks that have washed towards the ocean and beached,” MEPA General Manager Dr. Terney Pradeep Kumara told The Sunday Morning.
Dr. Kumara also noted that in a study conducted last year, the total amount of disposable facemasks that were produced globally had been estimated to be 56 billion, out of which 1.5 billion were estimated to have reached the oceans due to mismanaged waste disposal.
Although Sri Lanka has taken a step in the right direction towards introducing the single-use plastic usage ban and companies now being asked to phase out their products introduced to the market in the coming months, the Government has to find methods to deal with the mounting medical waste problem.
In a study carried out for Blue Ocean on Clean Cities last year, the amount of plastic Sri Lanka added to the Indian Ocean amounted to 640,000 metric tonnes per year. The Ministry of Environment estimated that Sri Lanka was disposing of an estimated six million surgical facemasks per day, due to the wearing of facemasks when in public places being made mandatory following the commencement of the second wave of Covid-19 in October 2020.
Amidst all these findings, Sri Lanka being listed as one of the top 10 countries that are releasing pollutants to the ocean due to mismanaged waste is also not helpful. It is estimated that in 2025, Sri Lanka will be contributing at least 10% of the total waste that is added to the ocean.
Guidelines in place
In order to take control over the mismanaged waste disposal that is taking place across the country, with the public carelessly dumping PPE on the roadside and near waterways, the Government of Sri Lanka, after consulting experts from the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government, and the Western Province Waste Management Authority, decided to categorise disposing PPE and any waste generated from quarantine centres, areas that were under isolation, and homes that were following home quarantine procedures, as special waste. The guidelines put forth are as follows:
- Facemasks and gloves are to be discarded and segregated along with other household waste items such as tissues, handkerchiefs, sanitary pads, diapers, and any other material contaminated by bodily fluids
- The disposed items are to be collected in a leak-proof yellow bag in a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) (25 microns or 100-gauge thickness) or low-density polyethylene (LDPE) (55 microns or 250-gauge thickness) polythene bags. In the absence of a yellow bag, it is instructed that the items be discarded in a HDPE or LDPE polythene bag and should be labelled as special waste or have a yellow ribbon/cloth strip tied to it for easy identification by the garbage collectors
- Alternatively, PPE such as surgical facemasks and disposable gloves are to be collected in a garbage bag and handed over to the nearest state hospital, so they could dispose of it along with their clinical waste
