Increased personal protective and medical equipment manufacturing to fight COVID-19: an egregious approach for the environment

This study analyses and discusses the material flow, pollution impact and environmental footprint of the personal protective equipment (PPE) life cycle using five critical themes: raw material processing, manufacturing process, transportation, product use and management of end-of-life PPE and other medical equipment. A systematic review of the literature is combined with interviews with industry practitioners across different sectors in the PPE life cycle. Findings from this study show that the environmental footprint and pollution impact of PPE is significant across the five life cycle themes analysed in this research. However, the environmental impact is more severe during the manufacturing and end-of-life management phases of the life cycle. The efficiency of resources, energy and materials during these phases is reported to significantly impact sustainability. The implications are PPE manufacturing can result in as much as 500,000 tonnes of industrial waste from the manufacturing process and 26 million face masks may be inappropriately disposed of each month in the UK. This research suggests the need for environmentally conscious design of critical medical equipment, the improvement of PPE life cycle management and methodical planning for post-pandemic impact by developing policies and legislations to discourage the use of single-use PPE outside clinical settings. This new knowledge is expected to help inform policies to reduce the long-term adverse impacts and to encourage a drive toward green medical equipment design and manufacturing.