PPE Litter

Personal protective equipment (PPE) refers to "protective clothing, helmets, gloves, face shields, goggles, face masks and/or respirators or other equipment designed to protect the wearer from injury or the spread of infection or illness" (Center for Devices and Radiological Health, 2020).

• “The use of masks by ordinary citizens quickly became controversial due to the lack of correct handling and disposal, and the shortage of this material in healthcare facilities” (Patrício Silva et al., 2020).

• “Even if PPE successfully protects you while it is worn, improper removal and disposal of contaminated PPEs can expose the wearer and other people to infection” (Center for Devices and Radiological Health, 2020).

• When testing for SARS-CoV-2 in different environmental conditions, “a detectable level of infectious virus could still be present on the outer layer of a surgical mask on day 7 (∼0·1% of the original inoculum)” (Chin et al., 2020).

• “Incorrect disposal of PPE quickly spread in several public places and natural environments” (Prata et al., 2020).

• In a recent survey trip to the Soko’s islands in Hong Kong, NGO OceansAsia has found massive amounts of surgical masks and gloves along the shoreline (OceansAsia, 2020).

• World Wide Fund stresses that “If even 1% of the masks were disposed of incorrectly and perhaps dispersed in nature, this would translate into 10 million masks per month dispersed in the environment” (WWF, 2020).

• "Single-use masks contain plastic polymers such as polypropylene, polyurethane, and polyacrylonitrile; gloves are made of latex rubber which contains some chemical additives" (Tamir, 2019) and can take decades to break down.

• "Arising from the unprecedented surge in single-use plastic PPE usage, there also appears to be a need to consider effective waste management and recycling strategies to limit SARS-CoV-2 cross-transmission (Rowan & Laffey, 2020).

• Learn more about the rising plastic issue relevant to this here.

• Suffolk County’s law focuses on the more upstream side of curbing PPE litter by creating a policy against it. The hefty fines that punish littering may be helpful in increasing the general public’s resistance to litter. However, upholding that policy is tricky. Depending on how strict the local police officers will be and their bandwidth to watch potential litterers, the actual enforcement might fall short.

• The City of Houston’s anti-litter campaign goes downstream as it targets the individual. It takes a collective approach, tasking those who call the city home to pick up after themselves. It can improve the attitudes and intentions towards picking up after themselves to do their part as fellow Houston citizens.

• Making the proper disposal of PPE very easy for the general public is an avenue to explore. More garbage bins with eye-catching signage will serve as an easy signal to do so, alongside campaigns like the Houston's.

• While it is not possible for everyone to nix single-use PPE altogether, providing free reusable PPE (cloth masks) to local community organizations and/or organizations providing COVID-19 wraparound services for the general public can make it easier to make the switch.