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Recycling facemasks into civil construction material to manage waste generated during COVID-19

Najafighodousi, A ; Sharif University of Technology | 2024

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. DOI: 10.1007/s11356-023-31726-8
  3. Publisher: Springer , 2024
  4. Abstract:
  5. Growing plastic pollution in the context of COVID-19 has caused significant challenges, exacerbating this already out-of-control issue. The pandemic has considerably boosted the demand for personal protective equipment (PPE), such as facemasks and gloves, all over the globe, and mismanaging this growing plastic pollution has harmed the environment and wildlife significantly. To mitigate negative environmental impacts, it is necessary to develop and implement effective waste management strategies. This present study estimated the daily facemask generation throughout the pandemic in Iran based on the distribution of urban and rural populations and, likewise, the daily generation of hand gloves in the COVID-19 era and the amount of medical waste generated by COVID-19 patients were calculated. In the next step, the quantities of discarded facemasks dumped into the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Gulf of Oman from the coastal cities were determined. Finally, the innovative alternatives for repurposing discarded facemasks in civil construction materials such as concrete, pavement, and partition wall panel were discussed. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2024
  6. Keywords:
  7. Concrete ; COVID-19, PPE and facemask ; Pavement materials ; Waste management ; Construction Materials ; COVID-19 ; Humans ; Masks ; Plastics ; Recycling
  8. Source: Environmental Science and Pollution Research ; Volume 31, Issue 8 , 2024 , Pages 12577-12590 ; 09441344 (ISSN)
  9. URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11356-023-31726-8