From surgical masks and gloves to disposable hospital gowns and aprons, the COVID-19 pandemic is creating a mountain of plastic medical waste that is polluting the land and sea — alarming doctors and environmentalists alike. One young entrepreneur in Mexico has now invented a range of reusable PPE (personal protective equipment) she hopes will stop metric tons of single-use medical wear ending up in landfill, incinerators, and waterways — and save hospitals a fortune. Tamara […]

Innovators and entrepreneurs across the world are pioneering solutions to address the pandemic related plastic waste explosion. The Covid-19 pandemic threatens to undo decades worth of progress achieved by the recycling industry in tackling global plastic pollution. Demand for plastic has risen, with the production of surgical masks, medical gowns, face shields, safety glasses, protective aprons, plastic shoes and gloves now proliferating. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, 1,6 million tonnes of plastic were generated […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased vigilance over the proper disposal of vaccine-related materials, such as vials, needles, syringes, and bandages. Pharmacy-based immunizations have become standard over the past 2 decades in the United States, a service that has positively affected every community.1 More than 280,000 pharmacists have been trained to administer vaccines in the United States since 1996, and since 2016, more than 25% of adults have received influenza vaccinations in pharmacies.1 As […]

On April 30, 2021, the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s enforcement office issued a memorandum titled “Strengthening Enforcement in Communities with Environmental Justice Concerns.” In light of the Biden administration’s recent focus on environmental justice and other social responsibility initiatives within environmental regulation, there is heightened scrutiny around compliance with environmental requirements; therefore, supermarkets, box stores, and other commercial businesses administering COVID-19 vaccines should consider the reputational risk of improper handling and disposal of medical […]

The COVID-19 pandemic instantly increased demand for some types of medical waste management, such as the disposal of personal protective equipment and testing supplies. Waste management companies met this challenge last year, but it required a lot of flexibility, they said. This year, health care providers have to dispose millions of needles and empty vaccine vials. But a shortage of sharps containers, the plastic buckets in which clinicians throw away old syringes and vials, is […]

The increase in the need for personal protective equipment (PPE) and its use during the COVID-19 pandemic has produced a rise in medical waste as institutions dispose of gowns, gloves, masks, face shields and shoe covers that have been exposed to the virus. “There definitely is more regulated medical waste being generated, and a lot of it is derived from PPE,” said Rudy Vingris, the health care business development manager at Waste Management Sustainability Services. […]

In any given year, vaccines are given out and needles and syringes have to be disposed of. But what about this year? How much excess medical waste is created by COVID-19 vaccinations? In short, it’s a lot. Naomi Friesz, a nurse, has been doling out shots on the frontlines since they were made available. She said Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health, alone, has given out thousands, likely tens of thousands more doses this year than any other […]

According to a survey done in 2017, which is conducted on a large sample of Americans by Consumer ­Reports, about 30% of Americans did not clean out their medicine cabinets for over a year and nearly 20% have not done so in the last 3 years. Additionally, most Americans do not know how to clean their medicine cabinets correctly. Those unused and expired medicines not only add clutter to our closets but also may cause […]

Good news: the COVID-19 vaccine schedule is moving along in the U.S. and expected to pick up substantially very soon. Over 80 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered from December 2020 until mid-March 2021, and the Biden administration is aiming to see that three million vaccines are administered per day by April. But a rapid ramp-up will mean a tsunami of vaccine-related waste, mainly needles. There are similarities in how this material and other […]

An unintended consequence of COVID-19 safety procedures has been a surge in trash, from face masks to gloves to, now, the discarded syringes and needles from COVID-19 vaccines. If laid end to end, the needles from the number of vaccine doses needed to inoculate the entire U.S. population—about 660 million—would create enough waste to wrap around the Earth 1.8 times, according to OnSite Waste Technologies, a medical waste disposal company. It’s certainly worthwhile trash to […]