MASKS AND PPE MAY BE A THREAT IN FUTURE

The Covid-19 has taken approximately 5.4 million lives world wide since November 2019. Still it mutates into different variants and threatens the lives of vaccinated people also. As per experts advice its predominant spread is prevented mainly by wearing face masks. As a basic preventive measure experts highly recommended to use 3 ply disposable face masks to save and protect lives. It was estimated 30 billion masks have landfilled since march 2020.And it was also estimated that more than 1.5 billion face masks entered oceans in 2020, resulting in an additional 4,680 to 6,240 metric tons (about 5,160 to 6,880 U.S. tons) of marine plastic pollution (OceansAsia, a nonprofit marine conservation advocacy organization).

In such reality,it is good to know that Warsaw university students designed a complete solution for recycling of used 3-ply disposable face masks. Whether the situation continues or the utility of the masks and PPE (personal protective equipment) is controlled by vaccines, there would be a huge pile of wastes in the land as well as in water bodies and Ocean. The world is already facing pacific garbage issue as a threat. This article is to give a little knowledge for each and every individual to separately dispose PPE wastes and also to find a possible collection and recycling solution for the better future.

DAMIAN BASTIN