Beta
147532

Available Recycling Solutions for Increased Personal Protective Equipment in the Environment Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Article

Last updated: 28 Dec 2024

Subjects

-

Tags

Environmental pollution

Abstract

The whole world today is facing an enormous increase in plastic waste pollution caused by the emergence of the COVID – 19 pandemic. A complex chemical composition of personal protective equipment (PPE) mainly containing polypropylene (PP) complicates the recycling process and it could take at least 450 years to degrade. Plastic pollution was already one of the greatest threats to our planet before the coronavirus outbreak. Disposal of millions of contaminated PPEs would end up as wastes, which, if improperly managed, can generate tonnes of plastic waste and consequently plastic pollution which is a significant threat to oceans and marine life. Eight million tons of plastic waste already end up in the world's oceans every year, and the impact of COVID-19 will only increase those figures. To reduce the amount of waste after using face masks and gloves which ends up in the environment have been proposed by different waste management companies and discussed in detail. Moreover, an eco-friendly way for photocatalytic degradation of polypropylene via TiO2-based nanomaterials under solar irradiation is present. Catalytic conversion of PP is also proposed for the reduction of environmental pollution. This review aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of plastic pollution and discussing potential strategies to overcome them.

DOI

10.21608/aujes.2021.57293.1009

Keywords

plastic pollution, personal protective equipment (PPE), Polypropylene (PP), recycling, Conversion

Authors

First Name

Amra

Last Name

Bratovcic

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

University of Tuzla, Faculty of Technology, Department of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry Urfeta Vejzagica 8, 75000 Tuzla e-mail: amra.bratovcic@untz.ba

Email

amra.bratovcic@gmail.com

City

Tuzla

Orcid

0000-0002-7579-3725

Volume

2

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

21770

Issue Date

2021-03-01

Receive Date

2021-01-09

Publish Date

2021-03-01

Page Start

1

Page End

10

Print ISSN

2735-4229

Online ISSN

2735-4237

Link

https://aujes.journals.ekb.eg/article_147532.html

Detail API

https://aujes.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=147532

Order

1

Type

Review articles

Type Code

1,616

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Aswan University Journal of Environmental Studies

Publication Link

https://aujes.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Available Recycling Solutions for Increased Personal Protective Equipment in the Environment Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Details

Type

Article

Created At

23 Jan 2023