Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on waste management
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Impact of COVID‑19 pandemic on waste management Samuel Asumadu Sarkodie1 · Phebe Asantewaa Owusu1 Received: 23 June 2020 / Accepted: 17 August 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract The containment of the spread of COVID-19 pandemic and limitations on commercial activities, mobility and manufacturing sector have significantly affected waste management. Waste management is critical to human development and health outcomes, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The invaluable service provided by the waste management sector ensures that the unusual heaps of waste that poses health risks and escalate the spread of COVID-19 is avoided. In this study, we assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on waste management by observing lockdown and social distancing measures. We found that the quantity of waste increased across countries observing the social distancing measure of staying at home. The intensification of single-use products and panic buying have increased production and consumption, hence thwarting efforts towards reducing plastic pollution. However, several countries have thus far instituted policies to ensure sustainable management of waste while protecting the safety of waste handlers. Keywords COVID-19 and waste management · COVID-19 pandemic · SARS-COV-2 · Social distancing measures · COVID-19 and environment · Novel coronavirus
1 Introduction Currently, there are over 20.1 million global confirmed cases and ~ 742 thousand deaths across the globe. The top ten countries depicted in Fig. 1 with reported cases include the USA (5,094,400 persons), Brazil (3,057,470 persons), India (2,268,675 persons), Russia (890,799 persons), South Africa (563,598 persons), Mexico (485,836 persons), Peru (483,133 persons), Colombia (397,623 persons), Chile (375,044 persons) and Iran (328,844)—with total confirmed cases surpassing ~ 13.95 million [est. August 10, 2020 at 18:00 GMT] (Lauren 2020). Despite income group (low, middle and higher income), the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed several lapses and limitation of the current socio-economic, health and environment-related sectors across countries (Owusu and Asumadu 2020). Though the COVID-19 pandemic is reported to have reduced air * Samuel Asumadu Sarkodie [email protected] Phebe Asantewaa Owusu [email protected] 1
Nord University Business School, Bodø, Norway
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Fig. 1 Global distribution of confirmed COVID-19 (Top 21 countries). Data source: Lauren (2020)
pollution and environmental-related noise and improved biodiversity and tourist sites, however, the impact of stay-at-home and preventive measures on waste management is alarming (Box 1). Due to the stockpiling of gloves, gowns, masks and other protective clothing and equipment, there appears to be a waste emergency due to the unusual production of waste from both households and health facilities (Ma et al. 2020). Failure to properly manage the waste generated from health facilities and households may escalate the spread of COVID-19 via secondary
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