Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 118, Issue 47, Pages -Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2111530118
Keywords
plastic; ocean; MITgcm; COVID-19
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [42177349, 41875148]
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [0207-14380168]
- Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling
- Jiangsu Innovative and Entrepreneurial Talents Plan
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Climate Change, Jiangsu Province
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The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the demand for single-use plastics, exacerbating the global plastic waste problem. The pandemic has generated a large amount of plastic waste, with a significant portion coming from Asia, highlighting the need for better management of medical waste.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increased demand for single-use plastics that intensifies pressure on an already out-of-control global plastic waste problem. While it is suspected to be large, the magnitude and fate of this pandemic-associated mismanaged plastic waste are unknown. Here, we use our MITgcm ocean plastic model to quantify the impact of the pandemic on plastic discharge. We show that 8.4 +/- 1.4 million tons of pandemic-associated plastic waste have been generated from 193 countries as of August 23, 2021, with 25.9 +/- 3.8 thousand tons released into the global ocean representing 1.5 +/- 0.2% of the global total riverine plastic discharge. The model projects that the spatial distribution of the discharge changes rapidly in the global ocean within 3 y, with a significant portion of plastic debris landing on the beach and seabed later and a circumpolar plastic accumulation zone will be formed in the Arctic. We find hospital waste represents the bulk of the global discharge (73%), and most of the global discharge is from Asia (72%), which calls for better management of medical waste in developing countries.
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