If there is one thing humans are good at, it is shortsightedness and cutting off their nose to spite their face. And the worst of these people, the healthcare system. While people go overboard being reactive to fear, people are producing a significant amount of waste from the COVID-19 infection for which will threaten our health next.
According to the World Health Organization’s publication of Global Analysis of Healthcare Waste in Context of COVID-19: Status, Impacts, and Recommendations, the waste created from healthcare waste due to COVID-19 are threaten environmental, and thus, human health.
The results published in this 71-page report are staggering and horrific at best. It is estimated that 87,000 tons are personal protective equipment (PPE) has been procured between March 2020 and November 2021 through the UN emergency initiative. Unfortunately, most of the equipment end of being waste.
PPE numbers include 5,900 tons of masks and 36,000 tons of gloves. Also non-essential PPE accounted for almost half to the PPEs shipped.
Analysis highlights the 140 million test kits, generating 2,600 tons of, mostly plastic, non-infectious waste. Additionally, 731,000 liters of chemical waste have also been generated and shipped worldwide. That’s about a this of an Olympic-size swimming pool.
In addition, the reports point out that the 8 billion does of vaccines administered worldwide has generated 144,000 tons of waste including 48,000 tons of syringes, 8,000 tons of safety boxes, and 88,000 tons of glass vials. Needless to say, once you factor in “single-use” gloves, packaging, documents, etc, the amount of waste will be far more.
However, the truth is that the healthcare system is a paradox that while advertising itself as caring for people, they really don’t do much in terms of actually securing the safety and health of humans in the long run. For example, healthcare systems have no real, responsible waste management system. They are entitled to just run through tons and tons of equipment as single use.
These numbers are based on UN distribution alone. Add the private sectors, we’ll being swimming in garbage. At the current moment, world has no abilities nor the cognitive awareness to fix this, let alone the already burden of garbage from the consumer sector.
We’re not damning PPEs. We’re not damning the UN, the World Health Organization, the stressed healthcare workers, or anyone for stepping up to help in the moment of crisis. However, we are condemning fear and selfishness. We are condemning the lack of foresight of the healthcare systems, the world governments, and the general people who live on this planet. We are condemning not learning from this important point in human history to produce sustainable and biodegradable PPE made from renewable resources. We’re also condemning the lack of foresight to prevent further pandemics by continuing systems that caused this such as animal agriculture and simply just trying to go back to the status quo. This isn’t a political issue, this is an issue of logic and intelligence. We need to hold ourselves accountable to higher, honorable standards.
Have good form and integrity in your actions. Do not let the solution of one crisis be the beginning of the next.
The most important thing you can do is to stop using single use masks. Our beautiful beaches and roads have been defiled by these discarded masks.
World Heath Organization. Global analysis of health care waste in the context of COVID-19. Copyright 2022. ISBN 978-92-4-003961-2 (electronic version)
