Environmental impacts of new Coronavirus outbreak in Iran with an emphasis on waste management sector
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Environmental impacts of new Coronavirus outbreak in Iran with an emphasis on waste management sector Ali Daryabeigi Zand1 · Azar Vaezi Heir1 Received: 20 July 2020 / Accepted: 23 September 2020 © Springer Japan KK, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic have brought several environmental problems worldwide, among which management of municipal solid wastes (MSW) is of great importance due to the effects of solid wastes on soil, air and water resources. This research focused on the emerging challenges in MSW management in Tehran, the capital of Iran, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tehran has been experiencing higher generation of MSW during the pandemic. Extensive use of personal protective equipments increased textile and plastic wastes considerably. On average, more than 4.5 million pieces of facemasks have been daily discarded by Tehranian residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Generation of hospital wastes in Tehran also increased by 17.6–61.8% during the pandemic. Legal source separation and recycling programs are still suspended, though waste collection procedure in Tehran has not been subjected to significant changes after the outbreak of the Coronavirus. Hospital wastes, which had been partially separated and treated, are now being collected altogether and landfilled. Waste incineration and composting have been ceased completely; therefore landfilling of MSW has increased by 35% and opted as the only disposal option in Tehran during the COVID-19 outbreak. This research represents a baseline to devise proper urban waste management strategies in developing countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Keywords COVID-19 · Municipal solid waste · Medical waste · Treatment · Disposal
Introduction COVID-19 pandemic has changed people life style, quantity and quality of generated wastes, and waste management operations in most developing countries. As of July 18, 2020, there had been 14,205,416 confirmed cases and 599,716 deaths worldwide, with 269,440 confirmed cases and 13,791 deaths reported in Iran due to the COVID-19 outbreak [1]. The WHO named that a global pandemic on March 11, 2020 due to the rapid outbreak of the disease worldwide [2]. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses having single-stranded RNA and a crown on their surface. These viruses are greatly pathogenic to humans, posing illness ranging from the common cold to severe diseases such as respiratory infection and gastrointestinal diseases [3, 4]. The new Coronavirus (COVID-19), which was initially * Ali Daryabeigi Zand [email protected] 1
School of Environment, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, No. 25, Azin St., Qods St., Enghelab Ave., 141556135 Tehran, Iran
reported in December 2019, caused numerous cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology followed by severe acute respiratory syndrome in Wuhan City, China. Afterwards, the COVID-19 has rapidly spread all around the world [5]. Recent statistics on COVID-19 infected cases and deaths in Iran are shown in Fig. 1. It can be known from the Fig. 1 th
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