The World Health Organization says overuse of gloves and “moon suits” and the use of billions of masks and vaccination syringes to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus have spurred a huge glut of health care waste worldwide.
The UN health agency reports that tens of thousands of tons of extra medical waste has strained waste management systems and is threatening both health and the environment, pointing to a “dire need” to improve those systems and get a response from both governments and people.
“Part of the message for the public is to become more of a conscious consumer,” says Dr. Margaret Montgomery, technical officer of WHO’s water, sanitation, hygiene and health unit. “In terms of the volume, it’s enormous.”
“We find that people are wearing excessive PPE,” Montgomery says, referring to personal protection equipment.
The agency says most of the roughly 87,000 tons of such equipment obtained from March 2020 to November 2021 to battle COVID-19 has ended up as waste. More than 8 billion doses of vaccine administered globally have produced 143 tons of extra waste in terms of syringes, needles and safety boxes.
A file photo show a view of a waste basket with syringes and gloves after residents received a dose of the third Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, at San Jeronimo nursing home, in Estella, around 38 kms from Pamplona, northern Spain, Thursday, Sept. 23. 2021 (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)
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