“Surging consumption of plastics and packaging during the pandemic has produced mountains of waste. But because fears of Covid-19 have led to work stoppages at recycling facilities, some reusable material has been junked or burned instead.”<\/p>\n
“At the same time, high volumes of personal protective equipment have been misclassified as hazardous, solid waste experts say. That material often isn\u2019t allowed into the normal trash, so a lot of it is dumped in burn pits or as litter.<\/p>\n
Experts say a problem in both cases is that an early fear \u2014 that the coronavirus could spread easily through surfaces \u2014 has created a hard-to-shake stigma around handling perfectly safe trash. Many\u00a0scientists<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0government agencies<\/a> have since found that the fear of surface transmission was wildly overblown. But old habits die hard, especially in countries where waste-disposal guidelines haven\u2019t been updated and officials are still preoccupied with fighting fresh outbreaks.”<\/p>\n https:\/\/dnyuz.com\/2021\/09\/18\/the-covid-crisis-is-now-a-garbage-crisis-too\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Surging consumption of plastics and packaging during the pandemic has produced mountains of waste. But because fears of Covid-19 have led to work stoppages at recycling facilities, some reusable material has been junked or burned instead.” “At the same time, … Continue reading