James Mathew L.

Laud

BID-3A

COVID pollution: impact of COVID-19 pandemic on global plastic waste footprint

As the arrival of COVID-19 the highly infectious virus emerged there is increased demand for PPE for in most countries, the government issued lockdown, social and

physical distancing and wear proper single-use products and materials for health and safety reasons to curb the spread of the virus. Other countries are estimated to have

more use of such items like Asia which is the highest population that discards wastes per day, followed by Europe, Africa, Latin America etc. Considering this as more

single-use plastics are used in every country the wastes problem worsens especially in places where the medical wastes are not adequately recycled/allocated. These

discarded PPE/plastics would end up into a pile of unregulated/uncontrolled wastes that in turn will go into the environment and costal shores. If this is not properly

regulated it could potentially infect people for particles of the virus remains on the surface of items which lasts for quite some time. This can be capable of exacerbating the

existing plastic pollution problems and could constitute an impending threat to our collective existence and marine organisms for when this waste is not controlled potential

vectors of pathogens may arise. As covid remains it will bring more challenges to the already worldwide battle to cut down plastic pollution. If we want to keep the use of

plastic materials/equipment, there should be measures/strategies placed to combat the already worsening pollution. This can be achieved with proper waste disposal and stick

to strict adherence to approved hazardous medical waste. There should be conservation strategies for proper sterilization and disinfection medical equipment this should be

carried out by those that take into consideration the purpose of this to reduction the risks that it poses to healthcare workers and the COVID-19 patients. There is

recommendation of healthcare providers to use reusable medical equipment than the single-use disposable PPE for medical personnel and patients. To address the reduction

of environmental plastic pollution protective items should be disposed by putting it in appropriately labelled clinical waste bins and be followed by recycling at designated

biohazard waste management facilities. These are the actions that should be placed to ultimately lead to reduction of plastic wastes that are and will be generated. With the

COVID virus it generated a huge influx of single-use plastic wastes globally. It has significantly worsened the already apparent battle of plastic waste problem in the world

as each day countries are more and more using disposable single-use PPE. With this influx of disposable PPE, waste management is not properly controlled this led to

environment and costal shore plastic pollution that will affect human and marine organisms alike. Solutions were recommended in order to regulated and somewhat reduce

the severity of the wastes problem and the risks that come with it.

Survey of the ocean’s plastic waste problem, and some policy developments of the Philippines

As Oceans have become one of the recent focuses on problems on environmental degradation. plastic waste has been produced in Asia of which the Philippines is a part of

The World Economic Forum emphasized that in 78 million tons of produced plastic yearly, the 32% of it end up in the oceans. Plastics vary in form, durability, and degree

at which it readily degenerates. Durable plastics require longer time for them to decompose while disposable ones are those plastics mixed with organic components for

them to easily degenerate. Plastic waste has showed a pathway of transport into the oceans and other bodies of water. Which this plastic waste accumulation has been found

to pose serious threat to marine habitat such as coral reefs. These wastes accumulate into bodies of water and the relatively slow decomposition rates of plastic waste

products, the pollution from plastics is exacerbated by “ocean currents” that create “garbage patches” which is a nonbiodegradable material. Which have environmental,

biological, chemical side effects that can lead to affecting humans when marine species are harvested for food. As the oceans is open access plastic wastes generate negative

externalities, so there should be an approach of bargaining to undergo in certain conditions. This bargaining solution is the Coasean solution which is about a small group

that bargaining for some reducing the negative side effects that emanating from a particular economic activity. This entail that monitoring can be strictly enforced so that the

information is regulated between parties. This solution usually not involve large groups for in a real situation there will be lack of equality in disseminating the information.
This lack of information is a problem because it is needed for proper solutions to be applied to plastic waste generation and to measure the impacts of the accumulation of

the marine litter. In the case of the Philippines, with the lack of this said data there won’t be proper studies about the whole plastic waste generation problem as well as how

to identify policies and programs to make the effects of the plastic waste in the environment less intense. For data generation is important in aiding the technical and

scientific research to reduction the effects of plastic pollution in the ocean/environment. There is also an alternative to this solution Cosasean solution as private sector and

governments make measures on aiding the cleanup of the environment and the oceans. They attained particular interest in the creation and pricing of goods that promote

ecofriendly and organic products. But it is not an easy to properly determine the appropriate private price for these goods. So, they hypnotized to ensure that this such goods

be provided, there should be enforceable international agreements place. Laws were passed to regulate these polluted places such act is the Solid Waste Management Act,

which mandates various mechanisms of solid waste management and reduction. which segregates wastes and providing provision recycling facilities. But this still not

change how properly disposal and segregation of this wastes, so the act of not using plastic bags is implemented to opt for the use of paper packaging as alternative. This

was meet with resistance and arguments however they managed to implement this ban in their respective areas. In the Philippines this are the ways to move forward in the

future as the ocean waste accumulation worsens there should be data to consider before implementing clean-ups such as costs, duration and whether there will be significant

improvement on environmental quality. They can also investigate the newly discovered solution that involve the so called “plastic eating enzyme” and the capability of the

wax worms to decompose plastics however these two discoveries have yet to be introduced on a mass-scale. There are factors to consider in effective policies to reduce

plastic waste in the Philippines. Such examples Filipinos are more likely to salvage/recycle products of goods quality and are considered durable. Another way forward is

the pay-for-use system of plastic bags so that people have discounts for the use of cloth bags or more durable paper bags, instead of the available plastic bags. In a study this

system has a 52.3% effectiveness rate in reducing the use of plastic bags for shopping. So, with the continuous development of this common goods is a good way to reduce

solid waste generation. We can conclude that there should be a shared commitment by the government in mitigating solid waste generation and looking for biodegradable

alternatives to plastic and other nonbiodegradable products and the people. Like stated in the reading’s “it’s the people who pollute, and not the plastic material themselves”.