Will the COVID-19 pandemic make waste management more uncontrollable?
The outbreak of COVID-19 has changed our lifestyle, and even the environment around us, such as the reduction of carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions and the alleviation of water pollution. A more obvious change is that the production of waste related to pandemic prevention has increased significantly. For example, the main component of disposable masks we use every day is plastic fiber. It is estimated that hundreds of billions of masks are used every month around the world. As the largest producer of masks, China's daily output in March 2020 has exceeded 100 million. Before the pandemic, the world produced more than 300 million tons of plastic every year, most of which eventually entered into nature and decomposed into small plastic particles.