When evaluating the COVID 19 pandemic, we generally first think about either the economic or the social impact that the pandemic has had. In doing so, the environmental impact is often overlooked. It is widely believed that the pandemic brought positive impacts to the environment as there were less cars on the road and many factories were producing fewer goods, but when considering the net environmental impact of COVID that is not the case. Cars are back on the road in full and the world is up and running again, yet there is still a large legacy left from the pandemic in much of the world, including masks.

The increase in use and need of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) has also exponentially increased the waste created by such PPE. If health care workers switched to a new mask every time they saw a new patient, as recommended by the CDC, workers would have used and disposed of 7.4 billion masks over just six months of the pandemic which alone would create 84 million kilograms of waste. Due to the shortage of masks available, these numbers are a high-end estimate of the real-world waste yet is not far off from the truth.

That is just for health-care workers too, the environmental impact of disposable masks from the general public is even greater. According to a study by the University of Southern Denmark, internationally we dispose of 129 billion masks every month which equates to 3 million masks every minute. That is 3 million masks being added to global pollution in just sixty seconds. These masks pose great danger to the environment in a great deal of ways. As they are made of micro or nano plastics they quickly break down into plastic particulates and spread throughout global ecosystems. These plastics then make their way into the stomachs of wildlife, the water we drink, and the fish that we eat causing a great deal of harm to biological life along the way. Many sea creatures are also found tangled in the ear loops of masks, similar to the effects of plastic bags.

This wasteful disposal of masks must be combated, and the health care system has already begun to implement policies to reduce the waste of disposable PPE. This includes sterilizing used masks either through ultraviolet radiation or through hydrogen peroxide sterilization. These methods allow health care workers to wear the same N95 masks for multiple days, yet additional research is required to determine how many times a mask can be sterilized before its protective ability falters. Once these sterilization procedures are determined, if used internationally, they could decrease the total waste created over a six month stretch of the pandemic from the astounding 84 million kilograms to between 13 and 18 million kilograms. While this is still a huge amount of waste introduced to the environment in just six months, a decrease of 71 kilograms of waste would be momentous.

Another way to reduce mask waste in the medical field even further is the creation of fully reusable masks that still operate at the protective level as a N95. This creation of a reusable, silicone N95 mask is already in late stages of development, yet still requires disposable filters to insert inside. These filters would create less waste than the disposable masks themselves, especially since they are also able to be sterilized and used multiple times. A completely reusable filter is also in development which could drastically cut down waste due to masking in the pandemic.

Regarding the general public, widespread sterilization is not very plausible, so other methods must be taken. This mainly takes the form of the public wearing reusable instead of disposable masks. Personally, I still use disposable masks many times when I go out simply because they are more convenient and there is no need to clean them. I do this despite knowing the environmental consequences, yet if there was a large campaign to end disposable masking, I feel that I could be easily persuaded to go back to wearing reusable masks as would much of the population. There could also be increased funding to research on developing biodegradable masks as they keep the convenience of disposable masks but eliminate the environmental waste. Even though this is creating millions of tons of waste, since masking is a relatively new concept for the western world, decreasing masking waste is not widely talked about when compared to decreasing waste due to plastic straws, grocery bags, or water bottles. Despite having greater magnitude than many of those other single use plastics, public awareness and action is at a low. This could be changed by an education campaign as I mentioned above and through observable community solutions. These solutions are easy to put in place and could include new policies that standardize the waste management of disposable masks as well as recycling centers that could accept and process said masks.

While masking mandates are slowly being lifted, masking in many parts of the world, especially the health care field, is here to stay, and the environmental impacts must be curbed before they substantially add to the already declining health of our planet. Steps must be taken to eliminate the waste of disposable masks and other COVID PPE. This can include but is not limited to education measures on the impacts of disposable masking on the environment, increased education on the benefits of reusable masks, incentives to purchase reusable masks, new recycling policies regarding disposable masks, and/or clear community disposal areas for disposable masks. I believe a combination of these methods implemented at both community and national levels could drastically decrease environmental damage due to mask waste with little economic cost.

Sources:

https://news.mit.edu/2021/covid-masks-environment-0720

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210310122431.htm