Environmentally-Friendly Protection against COVID-19 Without Harming Planet Earth
COVID-19, the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, call it what you will. There are reports of this virus allowing the earth to “breathe” with the lack of people out and about. Animals have been taking advantage of this, coming closer into shorelines and wandering more frequently than before the virus struck.
Thus, in a way, this virus has allowed the environment to restore itself. However, this unusual virus has stricken fear into not only the United States, but the world.
Understanding the Environmental Implications of COVID-19
This pandemic came with the necessity of protecting oneself via face masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer. The sale of these products went through the roof in a short amount of time, with a sharp influx in sales in early March 2020. With the increase of patients infected with COVID-19 came the increase of single-use PPE pollution.
Gloves and masks have been found littering parking lots, shorelines, gutters, and more.
Senior director of the Ocean Conservancy’s Trash Free Seas program Nick Mallos stated that the result of improperly disposing of these masks and gloves is not only harmful to the environment, but an initial study done suggests that the coronavirus can harbor on plastic for up to two-three days. Thus, posing the threat of further spreading the virus when these PPE materials were meant to slow the extent of it.
An example of this issue can be seen in Wuhan city in China. With a population of over 11 million people, in one single day, 200 tons of clinical trash was produced on February 24th, 2020.
The city only has one dedicated facility for incineration and that is four times the amount the facility is used to. With the spread of this virus to other parts of the world, the waste produced will be detrimental to the environment’s health, then leading to our health.
As One Health’s goal states, “ the health of people is closely connected to the health of animals and our shared environment”. Groups have found dozens of masks in marine debris in Hong Kong’s uninhabited Soko Islands. “On a beach about 100 meters long, we found about 70,” OceansAsia’s Gary Stokes told the Guardian newspaper. Thirty more masks were found a week later, he said. “And that’s on an uninhabited island in the middle of nowhere.”
The pollution of masks and gloves isn’t always intentional. Due to the fact that they’re so lightweight, they can easily be blown around.
Stokes suggests that a lot of the masks in the ocean are carried from land, boats, and landfills by the wind. Nonetheless, it’s still pollution so the best thing to do is to try and avoid buying these materials in the first place.
What we can do to combat this?
There are a couple of ways we as consumers can decrease the amount of waste we are emitting into the environment. The masks consumers typically buy are made to last for a long time.
Reusable masks can be made from plastic-based materials to be light-weight and durable, thus making it harder for them to degrade and proposing a lifespan of about 450 years!
Buying or making a reusable mask is a great start. The masks are relatively easy to make and require little material. Studies show that cloth masks do an excellent job of preventing the spread of droplets and airborne viral particles. The main concern is touching an object and then proceeding to touch your eyes, mouth, or nose.
In regards to gloves, a good alternative is to ditch the gloves all together and just stick to hand washing. Frequently washing your hands is a sure way to avoid COVID-19.
The CDC states that gloves are mainly used for treating or caring for someone with COVID-19 but they aren’t necessary for running everyday errands.
They suggest that this is to prevent anyone who is asymptomatic from spreading it to the rest of the public. Ultimately, mindfulness of environmentally-friendly protection during this pandemic can drastically reduce our carbon footprint on the environment around us.
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