Adelodun Bashir, Ajibade Fidelis Odedishemi, Ibrahim Rahmat Gbemisola, Ighalo Joshua O, Bakare Hashim Olalekan, Kumar Pankaj, Eid Ebrahem M, Kumar Vinod, Odey Golden, Choi Kyung-Sook
Department of Agricultural Civil Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea.
Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, University of Ilorin, PMB 1515, Ilorin, Nigeria.
J Mater Cycles Waste Manag. 2021;23(6):2077-2086. doi: 10.1007/s10163-021-01281-w. Epub 2021 Aug 6.
The recent emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to the drastic production and use of healthcare and personal protective equipment, leading to the release of a huge quantity of hazardous medical and solid wastes in the environment. Meanwhile, these solid wastes may contribute to the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 viral particles when disposed of without proper treatment and care. Since SARS-CoV-2 could persist on different material surfaces including plastic, steel, paper, cardboard, cloth, and wood, proper management of these hazardous solid wastes has become a challenging task during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, an overview of the consumption of COVID-19-related healthcare and personal protective equipment along with the production of hazardous solid waste is presented. The efficient management of these wastes is necessary to prevent the entering of SARS-CoV-2 in various environmental compartments. Therefore, some preventive measures including the use of biodegradable materials for manufacturing personal protective equipment, minimizing the use of non-biodegradable materials, efficient pre- and-post planning, careful segregation, and disposal are, therefore, proposed for their sustainable management. The findings reported in this paper contribute to tackling the problems associated with hazardous solid waste management, particularly for low- and middle-income countries.
近期新冠疫情的出现导致了医疗保健和个人防护装备的大量生产和使用，从而在环境中释放了大量有害医疗废物和固体废物。与此同时，如果这些固体废物未经适当处理和妥善处置，可能会导致严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）病毒颗粒的传播。由于SARS-CoV-2可以在包括塑料、钢铁、纸张、纸板、布料和木材在内的不同材料表面存活，因此在新冠疫情期间，对这些有害固体废物进行妥善管理已成为一项具有挑战性的任务。本文概述了与新冠疫情相关的医疗保健和个人防护装备的消耗情况以及有害固体废物的产生情况。为防止SARS-CoV-2进入各种环境介质，有效管理这些废物十分必要。因此，本文提出了一些预防措施，包括使用可生物降解材料制造个人防护装备、尽量减少不可生物降解材料的使用、进行有效的事前和事后规划、仔细分类和处置，以实现对这些废物的可持续管理。本文所报告的研究结果有助于解决与有害固体废物管理相关的问题，特别是针对低收入和中等收入国家。
