Shareeta Senthithasan considers: can Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) protect both workers and the environment? She shares some expert insights and discusses some of the key considerations.
As sustainability efforts continue to gain momentum among businesses around the world, small yet scalable swaps are an important step. The global COVID-19 pandemic put medical PPE in the spotlight — along with its impact on the environment. Medical plastic waste was estimated to grow at an annual rate of 20% between 2020 and 2025, producing approximately 20.9 million tonnes of plastic medical waste in 2025.1
According to a Nanjing University study published in 2021, 25,900 tonnes of plastic waste from single-use PPE used during the pandemic was leaked into the ocean, highlighting a real challenge with the disposal of critical PPE. Even before the pandemic, an estimated 12 billion tonnes of plastic was set to accumulate in landfill and the wider environment by the year 2050.
This underscores a serious need for more sustainable solutions. In this article, we'll explore that demand, the options currently available and their emissions in the product lifecycle.
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