How Coronavirus (COVID-19) Is Impacting The Environment
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted everyone. This pandemic has affected work, school, and the economy. But COVID-19 is also affecting the environment. Whether COVID-19 will overall help or harm the environment is still unclear. It is most probable that COVID-19 will help the environment is some forms, and harm the environment in other forms.
How COVID-19 Affects Air Pollution
Because of increased stay-at-home measures, the use of transportation has decreased greatly. Additionally, power plants and industrial facilities have stopped production. All this leads to fewer greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Airlines have also stopped some or all flights, which contributes to this as well.
In Europe, nitrogen oxide (NO2) levels have decreased because of stay-at-home orders. This caused a great reduction in vehicle usage. The image below shows NO2 levels for France and Spain in March 2019, and in March 2020. The darker the red, the more concentrated the NO2 levels are. In March 2020, there is significantly less NO2 in both France and Spain then compared to in March 2019.
How COVID-19 Affects Landfills and Recycling
Because of social-distancing measures, beaches around the world have gotten cleaned up. A decreased amount of tourism has also led to decreased amounts of waste. However, many recycling and waste services have been suspended for safety reasons, leading to most waste being taken to landfills.
Also, for public health reasons, many companies have been using disposable items, instead of reusable ones brought from the customer’s home. Examples of this include grocery bags, coffee cups, and utensils. Starbucks has temporarily stopped their reusable cup program.
Medical waste has also increased because of COVID-19. There has been an increase in garbage from personal protective equipment (PPE) including masks and gloves. It is essential to properly dispose of medical waste and products. Masks and gloves cannot be recycled after they have been used.
The Takeaway
Even through the midst of a pandemic, we have to be environmentally conscious. We cannot let COVID-19 ruin the progress the world has made to help the environment. Also, we cannot rely on COVID-19 to help reduce our greenhouse gasses. COVID-19 is just a bump on the road to environmental stability. The environment needs us to help protect it, and we can’t let a pandemic change that.
