Environmental Impacts of Personal Protective Clothing Used to Combat COVID-19

TL;DR

The paper reviews the environmental impacts of single-use synthetic PPE used during COVID-19, highlighting pollution issues and proposing sustainable alternatives and improved waste management strategies.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of the environmental impacts of PPE supply chains and suggests fundamental changes for sustainability.

Findings

Increased PPE use during COVID-19 raises oceanic plastic pollution concerns.

Environmental impacts include water use, chemical pollution, CO2 emissions, and waste.

Recommendations for sustainable PPE practices and waste management.

Abstract

Personal protective clothing is critical to shield users from highly infectious diseases including COVID-19. Such clothing is predominantly single-use, made of plastic-based synthetic fibres such as polypropylene and polyester, low cost and able to provide protection against pathogens. However, the environmental impacts of synthetic fibre-based clothing are significant and well-documented. Despite growing environmental concerns with single-use plastic-based protective clothing, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has seen a significant increase in their use, that could result in a further surge of oceanic plastic pollution, adding to mass of plastic waste that already threatens marine life. In this review, we briefly discuss the nature of the raw materials involved in the production of such clothing, as well as manufacturing techniques and the PPE supply chain. We identify the environmental impacts at critical points in the protective clothing value chain from production to consumption, focusing on water use, chemical pollution, CO2 emissions and waste. On the basis of these environmental impacts, we outline the need for fundamental changes in the business model, including increased usage of reusable protective clothing, addressing supply chain bottlenecks, establishing better waste management, and the use of sustainable materials and processes without associated environmental problems.