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According to an estimate by researchers at Nanjing University and the University of California San Diego, the total excess plastic waste generated globally related to the COVID-19 pandemic stood at 8.4 million tonnes (as of 23/Aug/2021).

Close to 88% of the pandemic related plastic waste originated from hospitals (estimates based on the number of COVID-19 inpatients and per-patient medical waste generated for each country), PPE kits made up only 7.6% of the total waste followed by packaging and test kits at 5%.

The plastic waste was produced most in Asia (46%), followed by Europe (24%), and 22% in North and South America. This reflects the lower treatment level of medical waste in many developing countries such as India, Brazil and China compared to developed countries.

Moreover, around 26 thousand tonnes of pandemic related plastic waste has ended up in oceans. The top three rivers for pandemic-associated plastic waste discharge are all in Asia: Shatt al Arab (5.2 thousand tonnes), Indus (4.0 thousand tonnes), and Yangtze River (3.7 thousand tonnes). About 73% of the discharge is from Asian rivers followed by Europe (11%), with minor contributions from other continents.

This is a huge problem as it is estimated that by the end of this century, almost all the pandemic related plastics will end up in either the seabed or beaches, potentially hurting the benthic ecosystems.

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