Cyprus Mail 9 November 2021
The pandemic has further exacerbated the problem of plastic pollution of the seas, as extra waste, weighing a total of about 25,900 tons, is estimated to have already ended up in the oceans, according to a new Chinese-American scientific study.
These plastics are masks, gloves, surgical aprons, masks, antiseptic bottles and other disposable protective items, as well as plastic test packaging, the demand for which has increased - last year and this year - due to the coronavirus. The vast majority of this waste (87.4%) comes from hospitals around the world, while only 7.6% comes from individuals and the remaining 5% is for coronavirus test packages.
The huge amount of plastics of this kind produced and consumed has been shown to exceed the possibilities of most countries to recycle and process them. It is estimated that from the beginning of the pandemic until August 2021, 8.4 million tons of extra plastic waste had been produced by 193 countries.
Researchers from the School of Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Nanjing and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography of the University of California, who published the paper in the journal of the US National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), predict that eventually in a few years almost all plastics related to the pandemic will have ended up on the beaches (29%) or the seabeds (71%).
46% of the plastic waste of the pandemic comes from Asia and its countries with large populations (China, India, etc.), 24% from Europe, 16% from South America, 8% from Africa and 5.6% from North America. Asian countries are managing the plastic waste of the pandemic worse than Europe and the US. Waste usually ends up in the seas through major rivers such as the Danube (1,700 tons of waste), the Indus (4,000 tons) and the Yangtze (3,700 tons).
73% of waste is transported via Asian rivers and 11% through European rivers. "The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increased demand for single-use plastics, thus intensifying an already out of control global plastic waste problem.
These discarded plastics can be transported over long distances in the ocean, come into contact with marine organisms and potentially injure them or even lead them to death," the researchers say.
Globally, it is estimated that up to 13 million metric tons of plastics of all kinds and sizes end up in the oceans each year.
ANA-MPA
