Will Dumped Masks Create Problems for Environment in the aftermath of Corona?

Rajat Paul:

As the present world resides under the black cloud of the coronavirus pandemic, all on the planet are trying to cover themselves up with every protective gear they can afford. The protective gear, such as masks, do save a body from getting infected, but the disposal of these also creates a lot of solid non-disposable wastes.

Most citizens have started using masks and a person with a mask seems omnipresent in the current landscape amid rising fears of the contagion. Countries like Japan and South Korea have been using masks since the 2003 SARS outbreak with every person wearing masks on a daily basis, which created a new "mask culture."

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Now, this new phenomenon is creating yet another crisis entirely. More the virus gets spread, more the biomedical/clinical waste is generated. The clinical waste generated from hospitals will get dismantled as per Medical Council Rules and Regulations whereas the waste (such as masks) generated from household whether from an infected or disinfected person is thrown directly in the nearby pits or carried by municipal vans and thrown in the dump hill of the city which could further lead to causing of infection to the sanitary workers, animals, marine life environment and nearby humans.

Cities surrounded by water bodies such as beaches throw their waste into the sea causing the water bodies to contaminate, leading to a further spread.

Since now every disposable waste will be treated as clinical waste, to counter the disposable of household wastes, Health Ministry has issued certain guidelines to deal with the situation: "Used Masks especially those by patients, home quarantined, care givers, close contact are to be considered potentially infected and should be disinfected with ordinary bleach solution or sodium hypochloride solution and then disposed by either burning or deep burial”.

Fear is that, like plastics, masks should not become the next threat to humans. Taiwan started a penalty of NT$ 6000 on mask litters. Do you think India should start something similar as well?

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