COVID-19 PPE plastic material flows and waste management: Quantification and implications for South Africa

Highlights: • Sankey diagrams developed to capture uncertainty in the plastic PPE material flow. • Mass flow of PPE was relatively smaller to the total national plastic. • Number of separate PPE items is a growing problem for waste management systems. • Known estimate of Covid-19 plastic material resources and waste legacy presented. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of countries to resource constraints while highlighting the indispensability of plastic. Personal protective equipment (PPE), comprising plastic materials, is experiencing an unusual increase in demand globally due to unprecedented consumption for the protection of healthcare workers and the general population. There is a need to model and better understand the material implications of the pandemic. In this research, material flow analysis was used to model the flow of plastic material pre-COVID-19 in South Africa and the additional contribution of the COVID-19 PPE to the plastic footprint. Sankey diagrams were developed to capture the material flow analysis. The mass flow of PPE through the supply chain during the ongoing pandemic is relatively smaller compared to the total national plastic. However, the number of separate PPE items presents a major and growing problem for waste management systems. This paper puts the COVID-19 resource requirements into perspective in relation to South Africa's total national plastic and provides the first known estimate of COVID-19 plastic material resources and waste legacy.