Sharma Hari Bhakta, Vanapalli Kumar Raja, Cheela Vr Shankar, Ranjan Ved Prakash, Jaglan Amit Kumar, Dubey Brajesh, Goel Sudha, Bhattacharya Jayanta
Environmental Engineering and Management, Department of Civil Engineering,Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal 721302, India.
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal 721302, India.
Resour Conserv Recycl. 2020 Nov;162:105052. doi: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.105052. Epub 2020 Jul 15.
The crisis brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic has altered global waste generation dynamics and therefore has necessitated special attention. The unexpected fluctuations in waste composition and quantity also require a dynamic response from policymakers. This study highlights the challenges faced by the solid waste management sector during the pandemic and the underlying opportunities to fill existing loopholes in the system. The study presents specific cases for biomedical waste, plastic waste, and food waste management - all of which have been a major cause of concern during this crisis. Further, without active citizen participation and cooperation, commingled virus-laden biomedical waste with the regular solid waste stream pose significant negative health and safety issues to sanitation workers. Single-use plastic usage is set to bounce back due to growing concerns of hygiene, particularly from products used for personal protection and healthcare purposes. It is expected that household food waste generation may reduce due to increased conscious buying of more non-perishable items during lockdown and due to concerns of food shortage. However, there is a chance of increase in food waste from the broken supply chains such as food items getting stuck on road due to restriction in vehicle movements, lack of workers in the warehouse for handling the food products, etc. The study also stresses the need for building localized resilient supply chains to counter such situations during future pandemics. While offering innovative solutions to existing waste management challenges, the study also suggests some key recommendations to the policymakers to help handle probable future pandemics if any holistically.
新冠疫情引发的危机改变了全球垃圾产生动态，因此需要特别关注。垃圾成分和数量的意外波动也要求政策制定者做出动态回应。本研究突出了疫情期间固体废物管理部门面临的挑战以及填补系统现有漏洞的潜在机遇。该研究介绍了生物医疗垃圾、塑料垃圾和食品垃圾管理的具体案例——所有这些在此次危机期间都是主要的关注点。此外，如果没有公民的积极参与与合作，混杂着病毒的生物医疗垃圾混入常规固体废物流会给环卫工人带来重大的负面健康和安全问题。由于对卫生问题的担忧加剧，尤其是对用于个人防护和医疗目的产品的担忧，一次性塑料的使用量可能会反弹。预计家庭食品垃圾的产生量可能会减少，这是因为在封锁期间人们更有意识地购买不易腐烂的物品，以及出于对食品短缺的担忧。然而，由于供应链中断，如食品因车辆运输受限而滞留在路上、仓库缺乏处理食品的工人等，食品垃圾有可能增加。该研究还强调需要建立本地化的弹性供应链，以应对未来疫情期间的此类情况。在为现有垃圾管理挑战提供创新解决方案的同时，该研究还向政策制定者提出了一些关键建议，以帮助全面应对未来可能出现的疫情。
