The Ugly Truth about PPE and the Countess of Wessex's Stance on its Disposal

Countess of Wessex and Family Express Concern over PPE litter and disposal

The Countess of Wessex and her lovely family took part in a beach clean up for the Great British Beach Cleanover the weekend, along with a few other volunteers from the Marine Conservation Society.

Sophie proves again and again why she is such a beloved and treasured family member of the royal family.

One environmental issue that the pandemic has caused to spiral out of control is the use of plastic in personal protective equipment (PPE). Single use items such as cups and utensils are now a preferable choice in households, facilities and businesses as people work together to help continue to curb the spread of the virus in daily life.

Have all the efforts to lessen widespread use of plastics gone up in flames?

At the beach clean up, Lady Louise, daughter of the countess expressed worries about the widespread use of single use plastic due to the coronavirus pandemic in her statement:

“Everything has got worse this year because everyone has gone back to non-reusable, non recyclable plastic cups.”

Not only that, Lady Louise, but some of the PPE gear that is being mass produced in China are made with harmful plastics. One popular such item is the plastic face shield. Due to the previous PPE shortage, factories began upping the ante on the production of these plastic face shields. On top of the issues that production of these masks is contributing to the environment, one has to ponder whether these plastic face shields are really all that effective against the coronavirus. OOohhpf! Double the trouble!

Now, there haven’t been any scientific studies on the effectiveness of plastic face shields in preventing coronavirus but I think you will be able to guess my stance on this if you are a reader of the Green News Guide.

YOU DIRTY DIRTY PLASTIC YOU…!

Another PPE item--gloves are made from cheap plastics like PVC or nitrile butadiene rubber. PPE such as surgical masks and respirators are made from polypropylene and they are often non-reusable and must be quickly discarded for obvious reasons. Items made from this type of plastic material can take around 500 years to degrade in the ocean.

Approximately 10 million single use PPE is used everyday in the UK since the onset of COVID-19. That number is much larger if we take into account global usage. Coronavirus is hurting people and the PPE being used to help curb the spread of it is hurting our environment because PPE litter and plastic pollution is currently all the rage! How do we know?

Masks are washing up on the shores of beaches! Approximately seventy masks were found within a short distance of a Hong Kong Beach and many of them looked brand new.

It is so awesome to see the Countess and her families express such genuine concern for the environment with the PPE litter problem that we are currently facing and actively engage in the cleaning of a nearby beach. When speaking about PPE, she said:

“The medical profession, they know what to do with it. There is no information about how people should dispose of them. We aren’t being told what to do with them.”

Sophie went on to hint at a suggestion of recycling facilities for PPE.

“Medical facilities and the medical profession obviously know what to do with it…..I don’t know whether they incinerate, I’m not sure…but we just don’t know what to do with them.

Having dedicated PPE recycling facilities is not a bad idea at all. Medical facilities are not recycling PPE because they’re more than likely to be considered hazardous and get trashed along with those disposables.

Since there are no dedicated PPE recycling facilities, then what are sustainable solutions to the PPE litter issue?

To be cont’d…..

#plasticpollution #ppe #ppelitter #plasticpollution