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Impact of the COVID-19 Outbreak on the Generation of Plastic Waste
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Researchers examined how the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically increased plastic waste generation, driven by surging demand for personal protective equipment, single-use packaging, and medical supplies. This plastic surge likely accelerated the flow of microplastics into waterways and ecosystems at a time when waste management systems were already strained.
Since the start of the outbreak COVID-19 epidemic by a novel coronavirus 2019 (SARS-CoV-2) early in December 2020, several countries worldwide have sought to shield their citizens by numerous prevention measures which protective gear is often considered high-demand...
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Plastic Pollution During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Disaster in the Making
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Researchers assessed how the COVID-19 pandemic created a plastic pollution crisis, finding that while mobility restrictions temporarily reduced some environmental pressures, the surge in single-use protective equipment and packaging generated massive new streams of plastic waste with significant ecological consequences.
Plastic Pollution and the Need for Responsible Plastic Consumption and Waste Management
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This paper reviewed the global scale of plastic pollution across environmental compartments and assessed current waste management practices — recycling, composting, incineration, and landfill — finding that all existing approaches result in leakage of plastics into natural environments. Closing the gap between plastic production and effective end-of-life management is a prerequisite for halting the continuous input of new microplastic particles into ecosystems and ultimately into human bodies.
Microplastic Pollution: Occurrence, Sources and Impact of COVID-19 Generated Waste
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Researchers reviewed how the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically increased microplastic pollution through mass disposal of masks, gloves, and other single-use items, examining the cascading effects on ecosystems and human health.
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Researchers reviewed emerging technologies for managing municipal solid waste, highlighting how biological processes like anaerobic digestion and thermochemical methods like pyrolysis can convert plastic waste into energy and valuable chemicals — offering more sustainable alternatives to landfilling that could also reduce plastic pollution at its source.
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This overview examined how persistent plastic pollution — including the 79,000 tonnes accumulating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — degrades into microplastics and permeates ecosystems globally. The review underscores that fossil-fuel-based plastics' near-permanent environmental persistence creates an expanding reservoir of microplastic exposure risk for wildlife and humans alike.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.