Microplastics from face masks: A potential hazard post Covid-19 pandemic

The tremendous use of plastic products to averse the infection rate during Covid-19 pandemic has developed great pressure on the management and disposal systems of plastic waste. The compulsory use of face masks to curb the infection and prevent transmission of the virus has led to addition of millions of face masks into the terrestrial and marine environment. The current study attempts to assess and quantify the rate of infection in coherence with the annual usage of face masks in various nations across the globe. The ecological footprint of the plastic waste generated from used and discarded face masks along with their potential impacts have also been discussed. The current study has quantified the total annual face masks across thirty-six nations to be more than 1.5 million ton. The total estimated figure for annual plastic waste and microplastics in all these nations was ∼4.2 million tonnes and 9774 thousand tonnes, which emerges as a great threat to the global efforts towards reduction of plastic usage. The emergence of Covid-19 pandemic has modified the living habits with new enterprises being set up for Covid essential products, but the associated hazard of these products has been significantly ignored. Hence this study attempts to present a quantitative baseline database towards interpretation and understanding of the hazards associated with microplastics and increased dependence on plastic products.