How Covid-19 is choking the planet – An alarming but informative data visualisation from the Straits Times, on the environmental impact of all the disposable medical masks being used during the pandemic.
Experts now estimate that each month, 129 billion face masks and 65 billion gloves are used and disposed of globally. With a surgical mask weighing roughly 3.5g, that would equate to 451,500 tonnes of masks a month and, when placed next to one another, cover an area roughly three times the size of Singapore, Conservationists and non-governmental organisations are increasingly concerned that a lot of the plastic waste, especially pandemic-related waste, is ending up in landfills, waterways and oceans, adding to the millions of tonnes of plastic waste already dumped into the world’s oceans every year.
Disposable public face masks, disposable swabs & swab kits, disposable syringes, disposable vaccine vials, disposable lab testing kit, NHS staff aprons, essential ward, ICU and other kit, PPE, oxygen masks, tubing etc, etc etc … Before Covid there was uproar over single use plastics … What Now?
From universal public outrage about Plastic Pollution in 2019 to a new ‘Plastic Pandemic’ to launch the 2020’s …
Baffled Ape 