Measures Against Disposable Masks: A Potential Source of Environmental and Biological Pollution

Due to the lack of awareness among the public about the proper disposal of used masks and inefficient central waste management systems, contaminated masks and PPE are creating serious environmental and hygiene issues (Silva, Prata et al. 2020). Plastic can itself propagate invasive pathogens and when it is in the form of a contaminated mask it becomes more hazardous (Naik, Naik et al. 2019). Laypersons, especially the impoverished are observed reusing the masks (Song, Pan et al. 2020). People find used masks dispersed and use them anyhow to follow protocols. Sometimes people are even observed sharing masks that some friend or relative has already used, due to a lack of knowledge about usage and disposal. As general mass lacks the understanding of the correct manner of discarding waste, contaminated masks are seen lying on grounds, roads, parks, sittings, and clinics. 94% of people have reported seeing PPE in their community regularly. This not only makes the place look inappropriate but also spoils the environment. Nobody wants to be touched by a mask that had shielded someone’s potentially virus-laden breath. Local roadside vendors who sell the masks, touch the masks with bare hands, more so people who are buying these masks also touch them while selecting and spoil them. These when used by other people can be a potential source of transmission of the corona. As the pandemic surged the panic buying of PPE also increased dramatically, ultimately bringing out tons of plastic waste (. According to a report, only 15 countries of Africa have reportedly produced 586,833,053 wasted masks i.e. two masks daily per capita (.  Asia throws 1.8 billion facemasks daily and China takes out 702 million masks daily which is the highest quantity globally (. Due to the lack of awareness among the public about the proper disposal of used masks and inefficient central waste management systems, these masks are creating some serious environmental and hygiene issues (Silva, Prata et al. 2020).

They clog pipes, and streets and also jam the machinery, mainly in the municipal system (. Plastic disposable masks are made up of polypropylene, polyurethane, polyacrylonitrile, polyesters, etc. being indestructible this waste poses a great environmental challenge adding plastic to the territory and water bodies (Abbasi, Khalil et al. 2020). This intoxicates aquatic and territorial lives in turn disturbing food webs. Moreover, the addition of plastic particles in human consumption, when a human eats plastic contaminated seafood, can create human diseases too (Stafford and Jones 2019). Some proven pathologies are metabolic, endocrine, fertility, and digestive disorders (Wright and Kelly 2017). Much known is the fact that plastic is devastating as it takes thousands of years to degrade. When burnt, plastics release environmental toxins, in turn adding to the air pollution. Escalated amount of facemasks and medical waste in the environment, thereby warrants the urgent prevention and control of this huge plastic waste.

As masks are the potent source of the spread of the virus, the community habitats and public areas should be carefully monitored to reduce pandemic-related risks. There must be proper collection and disposal of waste for which proper management must be undertaken. Due to increased waste, the Irish government raised funds for ring-fencing to tackle illegal dumping (. Garbage collectors should not collect waste, because not only it is dangerous for the spread among the pickers but also to the general population when recycled and reused inappropriately. Awareness to people must be given not to add COVID contaminated waste to the household trash as it is not incinerated or treated efficiently by the municipal plants assigned to treat household waste. Specially labeled trash cans must be used for contaminated masks and PPE.

This is necessary to prevent the infection and prevent the stealing of the mask for reuse and resale.

This method is being followed in Thailand (. When discarding the used masks, always dispose of them in closed leak-proof bags (. India uses paper bags for disposal (. Awareness through mass media and reforms among people with Feasible guidelines should be put forward to halt the spread. Community-wide guidance to tell people that reusable facemasks are better can help to reduce plastic waste (, Washable masks must be worn when possible. Moreover, new projects related to organic and degradable masks should be channelized (. The reusable masks for example from ten tree usable masks, ultra by blue introduced salvage hemp, others made organic masks, biodegradable material must be promoted (.  People must be taught to disinfect masks before reusing or discarding them, for instance, a simple method to inactivate virus-contaminated medical masks without affecting their filterability is by heating with a hairdryer for 30min (. Even after all the preventive measures are taken the fact is that disposable masks are part of medical safety protocols and this use cannot be excluded. So they must be efficiently disposed of. The process must include pretreatment, segregation, safe storage, delivery, collection, transport, and disposal. The methods for plastic disposal include incineration, sand landfills, or chemical-physical treatments. The major technique preferred for plastic disinfection and disposal is incineration, which is a biologically safe and suitable method to destroy the traces of virus with a high furnace temperature of 1100° for 3 minutes. (. China is using the method of a rotary kiln at 850° (. If land-fill is the option, the waste must be pretreated by autoclaving, chemical-physical, or biological methods to halt the spread of infection. (. US-based convention of trans bonding movement of hazardous waste and disposal has urged members to treat the waste of COVID-19 as urgent public service to minimize possible impacts.

 Moreover, UVGI, MGS, and microwave-generated steam are thought to be efficacious sterilization methods (Paul, Gupta et al. 2020, Zhao, Zhang et al. 2020).  The method of landfill is being used in India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, etc. as the common management option (. Once the waste is treated, then the proper burial must be done in rural and remote areas. Manifestly, Japan is using melting, steam, sterilization, shredding, and eventually landfill as the course of action. Alas, all these techniques increase the microplastic in the environment, so alternate approaches to this must be used. To reduce the net micro plastic reserve over the earth a productive idea of thermolysis of solid plastic into liquid fuel can be undertaken (. Making building material out of properly disinfected waste is another proposition (. These methods can act as the long-term plan for the huge plastic waste which is expected to be produced for a long time.