{"id":4417,"date":"2020-05-10T16:19:14","date_gmt":"2020-05-10T10:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/?p=4417"},"modified":"2020-05-11T10:54:08","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T04:54:08","slug":"press-release-covid-19-pandemic-outbreak-14500-tons-of-hazardous-plastic-waste-in-a-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/press-release-covid-19-pandemic-outbreak-14500-tons-of-hazardous-plastic-waste-in-a-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Press Release: COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak 14,500 Tons of Hazardous Plastic Waste in a Month"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dhaka, 10 May, 2020: <\/strong>The hygiene measures to avoid Novel Corona virus infection are recently making a huge consumer base for single use plastic commodities. In the first month of official lockdown to prevent Corona virus outbreak in Bangladesh, around 14,500 tons of hazardous plastic waste has emerged from the use of single use surgical face masks, hand gloves and polythene bags in communities, hospitals and other health care facilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ESDO has conducted a Study on these\nfacts titled \u201cCOVID-19 Pandemic Pushes Single Use Plastic Waste Outbreak: No\nManagement, No Protection: High Health and Environmental Risk Unveil\u201d, which\nfocuses exclusively on hazardous plastic waste emerging from the use of single use\nplastics protective gauges in communities and health care facilities. The findings\nof the study were disclosed through a press briefing arranged virtually by\nEnvironment and Social Development Organization at 11.30 am today.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Study emphasized\nthat; improper disposal of these hazardous COVID-19 plastic\nwastes\ncan cause massive environmental pollution including soil, water and air. Study\npredicted to speared others infectious disease as well. People working with\nwaste management system are in direct risk of catching the infection and\nspreading it further due to lack of proper protective measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the study, in the first month of the official lockdown to\nprevent COVID-19 spread in Bangladesh, The use of polythene and plastic shopping bags at community\nlevel has been growing at an unprecedented rate than ever. An estimated 455\nmillion surgical masks have been used by the entire population during the last\none month giving rise to an estimated 1592 tons of disposable plastic waste. Polythene\nshopping bag has been identified as the largest source of single use plastic\nwaste generation in Bangladesh during the ongoing COVID-19 response phase\naccounting for about 5796 ton of plastic waste in a single month. Use of\npolythene has increased many folds in communities as people tend to buy food\nitems in polythene covers to protect them against infection. Polythene bags are\nalso being used largely for relief distribution and takeaway food packaging\npurposes. Alone in Dhaka generated COVID-19 related single use plastic waste\naround 3076 ton. More than 443 tons of polythene shopping bags waste generated\nby shred of communities and distribution of relief items among the poor and the\ndistressed in polythene packets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the time\nof COVID-19 spread, growing tendency of using disposable hand gloves has become\nevident both in urban and rural areas of Bangladesh. Two different kinds of\nhand gloves are being used by people \u2013 polythene made hand gloves and surgical\nhand gloves. City dwellers and street vendors in urban areas are, apparently,\nthe major users of single-use hand gloves made up of polythene. Alone from this\nsource, an aggregated 1216 million gloves have been disposed by the population\nin the last one month referring to the generation of an estimated 3039 ton of\ndisposable plastic wastes. Of this, nearly 20% emerged from the capital city\nalone. An average 9% of the population around the county has also been found to\nbe using relatively heavy weight surgical hand gloves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Press briefing\nwas attended and responded by Professor Dr. Abu Jafar Mahmood, Principle\nTechnical Advisor, ESDO; Md Ziaul Haque, Director of Department of Environment;\nProf. Dr. Humayun Kabir Bulbul, Principal of Dhaka Dental College and Secretary\nGeneral of BDS, Dr. Shahriar Hossain, Secretary General ESDO; Siddika Sultana,\nExecutive Director, ESDO; and Assistant Program Officer Syada Mehrabin\nShejuti,  Assistant Program Officer and\nNazma Ahmed, Sr. Program Associate of ESDO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study\ndisclosed that the doctors and nurses in dedicated COVID-19 hospitals, who came\nin close contact with COVID-19 infected and suspected patients during the last\none month had to frequently use and dispose surgical masks and gloves, along\nwith other personal protective equipment. However, doctors in general hospitals\nhave also been using masks and hand gloves as part of extended precautions. An\nestimated 250 tons of single use plastic waste has been generated from the\nhospitals during the last one month solely from the use of surgical masks and\ngloves by health professionals. However, sample testing pathological\nlaboratories dedicated for COVID-19 testing has generated an additional 1.1 ton\nof singles use plastic waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Study\nintensively highlighted that, when a high volume of medical wastes gets\ngenerated within short time interval it becomes often impossible to segregate\nthe waste and treat them before sending them to landfill or to incinerate. These\nchemicals are absorbed by plants which are later utilized by other organisms\nincluding humans which as a result can cause disease or even death. Improper\nwaste disposal can also interfere with the food supply as plant growth is\nimpaired reducing the amount of food produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It focuses waste collectors get directly exposed to hazardous plastic wastes during collection, handling and transportation of infectious wastes from sources to storage facilities. When the discarded plastic wastes are collected or handled by waste collectors or personnel in waste management facilities without taking protective measures, it may get them infected. Informal waste collectors in Dhaka are working without adequate protection with heightened risk of getting infection from hazardous wastes. An estimated 6000 plus informal waste collectors are associated with the municipal waste collection and management process alone in Dhaka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For further information, please contact:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siddika Sultana
Email: siddika@esdo.org<\/p>\n\n\n\n

QuaziShahreenHaq
Tel: +880-2-9122729
Cell: +880-1711636175
Email: info@esdo.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dhaka, 10 May, 2020: The hygiene measures to avoid Novel Corona virus infection are recently making a huge consumer base for single use plastic commodities. In the first month of official lockdown to prevent Corona virus outbreak in Bangladesh, around 14,500 tons of hazardous plastic waste has emerged from the use of single use surgical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press_release"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4417"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4419,"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4417\/revisions\/4419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}