IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v23y2021i5d10.1007_s10668-020-00956-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on waste management

Author

Listed:
  • Samuel Asumadu Sarkodie

    (Nord University Business School)

  • Phebe Asantewaa Owusu

    (Nord University Business School)

Abstract

The containment of the spread of COVID-19 pandemic and limitations on commercial activities, mobility and manufacturing sector have significantly affected waste management. Waste management is critical to human development and health outcomes, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The invaluable service provided by the waste management sector ensures that the unusual heaps of waste that poses health risks and escalate the spread of COVID-19 is avoided. In this study, we assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on waste management by observing lockdown and social distancing measures. We found that the quantity of waste increased across countries observing the social distancing measure of staying at home. The intensification of single-use products and panic buying have increased production and consumption, hence thwarting efforts towards reducing plastic pollution. However, several countries have thus far instituted policies to ensure sustainable management of waste while protecting the safety of waste handlers.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuel Asumadu Sarkodie & Phebe Asantewaa Owusu, 2021. "Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on waste management," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 7951-7960, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:23:y:2021:i:5:d:10.1007_s10668-020-00956-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-020-00956-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-020-00956-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10668-020-00956-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír & Fan, Yee Van & Tan, Raymond R. & Jiang, Peng, 2020. "Minimising the present and future plastic waste, energy and environmental footprints related to COVID-19," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    2. Moreno-Sã Nchez, Rocã O Del Pilar & Maldonado, Jorge Higinio, 2006. "Surviving from garbage: the role of informal waste-pickers in a dynamic model of solid-waste management in developing countries," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(3), pages 371-391, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yalin Yuan & Minyue Xu & Hanxin Chen, 2022. "What Factors Affect Farmers’ Levels of Domestic Waste Sorting Behavior? A Case Study from Shaanxi Province, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-14, September.
    2. Jeadran Malagón-Rojas & Daniela Mendez-Molano & Julia Almentero & Yesith G. Toloza-Pérez & Eliana L. Parra-Barrera & Claudia P. Gómez-Rendón, 2022. "Environmental Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Experience of Bogotá, 2020," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-11, May.
    3. Youqing Lv & Guojian Ma & Juan Ding, 2022. "Evolutionary Game Analysis of Medical Waste Disposal in China under Different Reward and Penalty Models," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-19, April.
    4. Kentaka Aruga, 2022. "Impact of the Number of Hours Spent at Home on the Volume of Municipal Waste Generated: Evidence from Tokyo during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-10, May.
    5. Leili Mohammadi & Ahmad Mehravaran & Zahra Derakhshan & Ehsan Gharehchahi & Elza Bontempi & Mohammad Golaki & Razieh Khaksefidi & Mohadeseh Motamed-Jahromi & Mahsa Keshtkar & Amin Mohammadpour & Hamid, 2022. "Investigating the Role of Environmental Factors on the Survival, Stability, and Transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and Their Contribution to COVID-19 Outbreak: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-16, September.
    6. Deng, Yawen & Ng Tsan Sheng, Adam & Xu, Jiuping, 2023. "Authority-enterprise equilibrium based mixed subsidy mechanism for the value-added treatment of food waste," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    7. Fatimah Md Yusoff & Ahmad Fikri Abdullah & Ahmad Zaharin Aris & Wahidah Ahmad Dini Umi, 2021. "Impacts of COVID-19 on the Aquatic Environment and Implications on Aquatic Food Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-27, October.
    8. Vasile Gherheș & Mariana Cernicova-Buca & Marcela Alina Fărcașiu & Adina Palea, 2021. "Romanian Students’ Environment-Related Routines during COVID-19 Home Confinement: Water, Plastic, and Paper Consumption," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-24, August.
    9. Lingfei Wang & Yuqin Yang & Guoyan Wang, 2022. "The Clean Your Plate Campaign: Resisting Table Food Waste in an Unstable World," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-17, April.
    10. Walter Leal Filho & Amanda Lange Salvia & Arminda Paço & Celia Dias-Ferreira & Samara Neiva & Izabela Simon Rampasso & Rosley Anholon & Claudio Ruy Portela de Vasconcelos & João Henrique Paulino Pires, 2022. "Assessing the Connections between COVID-19 and Waste Management in Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-19, July.
    11. Bartosz Orzeł & Radosław Wolniak, 2022. "Digitization in the Design and Construction Industry—Remote Work in the Context of Sustainability: A Study from Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-25, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Veknesh Arumugam & Ismail Abdullah & Irwan Syah Md Yusoff & Nor Liza Abdullah & Ramli Mohd Tahir & Ahadi Mohd Nasir & Ammar Ehsan Omar & Muhammad Heikal Ismail, 2021. "The Impact of COVID-19 on Solid Waste Generation in the Perspectives of Socioeconomic and People’s Behavior: A Case Study in Serdang, Malaysia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-11, November.
    2. Min Su & Qiang Wang & Rongrong Li, 2021. "How to Dispose of Medical Waste Caused by COVID-19? A Case Study of China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-18, November.
    3. Tomasz Wołowiec & Iuliia Myroshnychenko & Ihor Vakulenko & Sylwester Bogacki & Anna Maria Wiśniewska & Svitlana Kolosok & Vitaliy Yunger, 2022. "International Impact of COVID-19 on Energy Economics and Environmental Pollution: A Scoping Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-26, November.
    4. Zhong, Chao & Tan, Jiqiu & Zuo, Hongyan & Wu, Xin & Wang, Shaoli & Liu, Junan, 2021. "Synergy effects analysis on CDPF regeneration performance enhancement and NOx concentration reduction of NH3–SCR over Cu–ZSM–5," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    5. Clavijo-Buritica, Nicolás & Triana-Sanchez, Laura & Escobar, John Willmer, 2023. "A hybrid modeling approach for resilient agri-supply network design in emerging countries: Colombian coffee supply chain," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    6. Mohannad Alkhraijah & Maad Alowaifeer & Mansour Alsaleh & Anas Alfaris & Daniel K. Molzahn, 2021. "The Effects of Social Distancing on Electricity Demand Considering Temperature Dependency," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-14, January.
    7. Walter Leal Filho & Amanda Lange Salvia & Arminda Paço & Celia Dias-Ferreira & Samara Neiva & Izabela Simon Rampasso & Rosley Anholon & Claudio Ruy Portela de Vasconcelos & João Henrique Paulino Pires, 2022. "Assessing the Connections between COVID-19 and Waste Management in Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-19, July.
    8. Wen, W. & Yang, S. & Zhou, P. & Gao, S.Z., 2021. "Impacts of COVID-19 on the electric vehicle industry: Evidence from China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    9. Kim, Dongwoo & Yim, Taesu & Lee, Jae Yong, 2021. "Analytical study on changes in domestic hot water use caused by COVID-19 pandemic," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    10. Masoomeh Zeinalnezhad & Abdoulmohammad Gholamzadeh Chofreh & Feybi Ariani Goni & Jiří Jaromír Klemeš & Emelia Sari, 2020. "Simulation and Improvement of Patients’ Workflow in Heart Clinics during COVID-19 Pandemic Using Timed Coloured Petri Nets," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-18, November.
    11. Emine Elmaslar Özbaş & Özcan Akın & Sinan Güneysu & H. Kurtuluş Özcan & Atakan Öngen, 2022. "Changes occurring in consumption habits of people during COVID-19 pandemic and the water footprint," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(6), pages 8504-8520, June.
    12. Pantelitsa Loizia & Irene Voukkali & Georgia Chatziparaskeva & Jose Navarro-Pedreño & Antonis A. Zorpas, 2021. "Measuring the Level of Environmental Performance on Coastal Environment before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study from Cyprus," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-24, February.
    13. Jiang, Shiqi & Lin, Xinyue & Qi, Lingli & Zhang, Yongqiang & Sharp, Basil, 2022. "The macro-economic and CO2 emissions impacts of COVID-19 and recovery policies in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 981-996.
    14. Xuemeng Zhang & Chao Liu & Yuexi Chen & Guanghong Zheng & Yinguang Chen, 2022. "Source separation, transportation, pretreatment, and valorization of municipal solid waste: a critical review," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(10), pages 11471-11513, October.
    15. Jiang, Peng & Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír & Fan, Yee Van & Fu, Xiuju & Tan, Raymond R. & You, Siming & Foley, Aoife M., 2021. "Energy, environmental, economic and social equity (4E) pressures of COVID-19 vaccination mismanagement: A global perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    16. Piotr Nowakowski & Sandra Kuśnierz & Patrycja Sosna & Jakub Mauer & Dawid Maj, 2020. "Disposal of Personal Protective Equipment during the COVID-19 Pandemic Is a Challenge for Waste Collection Companies and Society: A Case Study in Poland," Resources, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-11, September.
    17. Yan, Hongzhi & Hu, Bin & Wang, Ruzhu, 2021. "Air-source heat pump heating based water vapor compression for localized steam sterilization applications during the COVID-19 pandemic," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    18. Zhao, Xiang & You, Fengqi, 2021. "Waste respirator processing system for public health protection and climate change mitigation under COVID-19 pandemic: Novel process design and energy, environmental, and techno-economic perspectives," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    19. Siddharthan Selvaraj & Somasundaram Prasadh & Shivkanya Fuloria & Vetriselvan Subramaniyan & Mahendran Sekar & Abdelmoty M. Ahmed & Belgacem Bouallegue & Darnal Hari Kumar & Vipin Kumar Sharma & Moham, 2022. "COVID-19 Biomedical Plastics Wastes—Challenges and Strategies for Curbing the Environmental Disaster," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-15, May.
    20. Chen, Yenming & Wu, Tien-Hua, 2010. "The diffusion dynamics of the informal sector and sustainable WEEE supply chain," MPRA Paper 25650, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:23:y:2021:i:5:d:10.1007_s10668-020-00956-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.