A Critical Review of the Impact of COVID-19 on Plastic and Food Waste

Abstract

This research aims to show the positive and negative indirect effects of COVID-19 on municipal solid waste management systems, especially for plastic waste and food waste. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the entire waste management sector. As the pandemic spread and lockdowns were enforced in many countries, government and municipal waste operators had to quickly adapt their waste management programs and procedures to the situation. In the pandemic condition, waste generation has switched from industry and commercial to domestic areas. Reduced recycling activities have made municipal waste collection and disposal more difficult. This paper focuses on all the challenges and it’s possible resolutions for managing food and plastic waste during the pandemic of COVID-19.

Keywords

• covid-19, solid waste management, medical waste, recyclable waste, domestic waste, commercial waste