New Report: Eight Million Tonnes of Plastic Waste Generated During Pandemic

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): According to a recent research study conducted by a team led by researchers at Nanjing University in China and University of California (UC) San Diego, U.S., the Covid-19 pandemic has generated over 8 million tonnes of plastic across the globe. The results of the research were recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The research states that a significant portion of this ocean plastic waste is likely to pollute beaches or sea beds with next three to four years. A smaller portion will end up in the open ocean, which will be trapped in the centres of ocean basins. This will further escalate the global plastic problem, the study said.

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The research, based on data from the start of the pandemic in 2020 through August this year, found that majority of the global plastic waste comes from Asia, with hospital waste, including single-use plastics such as face masks, gloves and face shields accounting for the bulk. Also, the amount of medical waste was found to be substantially larger than the amount of waste from individuals.

Most of the global plastic waste enters the oceans from rivers. While the Asian river account for 73% of the total plastics discharge, European rivers accounted for 11%.