Challenges and Practices for Effectual Waste Management During COVID-19

Environmental issues have been growing due to the increased use of plastics and follow-up waste generation during the COVID-19 pandemic. To protect the patients, public, healthcare workers and waste management workers, many plastic protective gears are being extensively used throughout the world. These result in an unexpected increase of virus-laden infectious waste that needs to be mana­ged properly. Moreover, during this pandemic period, single-use plastic is also bounced back which could deteriorate our waste management processes. These factors are overwhelming the current waste treatment facilities and the health authorities are making a lot of efforts to ameliorate the waste management process. In this article, information on generated waste, guidelines issued by various countries, and challenges and practices for safe disposal of infectious waste is provided to mitigate such waste management issues in future.