1. Introduction
The production of global plastics in 2018 almost reached 360 million tons, while in Europe it was almost 62 million tons (Geyer et al., 2017, Plastics Europe, EPRO, 2019). The growth of global and Europe production of plastics from 1950 to 2018 presents in Fig. 1A. The most commonly used polymers are polyethylene (PE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS), which are about 65.4% of global plastic requirement (Fig. 1B) (Wilkes and Aristilde, 2017). Plastics are used to produce everyday products (Fig. 1B). The increasing production and consumption of plastic products became a major problem due to growth of wastes and environmental pollution (Soares et al., 2021).
The appearance of COVID-19 pandemic has caused global panic because of the disease spreading rate and mortality. Fast spreading of the virus required restrictions to reduce a number of infections. The main restriction was isolation, the mass gathering prohibition, physical distancing, strict travel control (cancellation of international flights, limitation of movement between cities), closure of schools, businesses, restaurants, shopping centers and other public places (Gostin and Wiley, 2020, Guan et al., 2020). The prevention strategies include recommendations of frequent hand washing, avoiding the face touching, social distancing (about 2 m), and many more (Acter et al., 2020). The most popular means of infection prevention are disposable protective gloves (DPGs) and protective masks. People are ordered to use DPGs during shopping, and to cover mouth and nose in public places. This fact caused the necessity of buying, possessing and daily usage of gloves. Gradually opening of public places has contributed to additional increase of the gloves usage due to maintaining hygiene standards when performing services in shopping centers, barbers, cosmetics, restaurants and offices.
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Some of plastics (PE or PVC) are commonly applied for disposable protective gloves (DPGs) production. Additionally, the production of DPGs involves natural and synthetic rubbers, also made from polymers (Aldiyarov et al., 2020). Because of the material, DPGs are categorized into latex (natural rubber) , nitrile, foil, vinyl, neoprene and others. The required use of DPGs during the pandemic caused their increased production at the same time. Before the pandemic, production of disposable gloves by Polish companies usually showed about 6% increase every year (from 5.8% to 6.3% in years 2014-2019). However, during the pandemic period, the DPGs production only in March 2020 increased by 30% compared to the same time in 2019 (Ta polska spółka zarobiła krocie na pandemii wirusa. Są najnowsze szacunki, 2020). The price of the company stocks increased from $1.71 to $88.53 within a year (data from 20th August 2019 and 20th August 2020, respectively) (Frączyk, 2020). In the 2019, global DPGs market was valued at $7.6 billion and it is predicted to reach $11.8 billion by 2025 (World Market Outlook for the Disposable Gloves and Materials Markets, 2020-2025: The World Health Organisation Estimates Manufacturing Should be Increased by 40% to Meet Demand, 2020). The Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers Association estimated that global production of DPGs will reach 420 billion pieces in 2021, up from 380 billion in 2020 (Phoonphongphiphat, 2021). Another projections for 2021 indicate the growth of demand for gloves at the level of 15-20% (Hutchinson and Bhattacharya, 2021).
The common use of DPGs by the entire community has caused increased quantities of gloves in landfills and also their presence in random spots such as parks, lawns, parking spaces and many others ( Fig. 2) (Ammendolia et al., 2021, Boyle, 2020b, Nowakowski et al., 2020). The customers of local shops, large supermarkets and shopping centers, despite placing containers for collecting used gloves, very often dispose of them randomly (Fig. 2). It generates a massive amount of used gloves, which creates a serious problem for the environment. Especially, the urban and suburban areas are significantly more polluted than before the pandemic. The different kinds of DPGs may be observed everywhere (Fig. 2).
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Personal protective equipment (PPE) commonly used during the pandemic became a new waste category (Nowakowski et al., 2020). According to the Directive 2008/98/EC of European Union, this type of debris are classified as mixed or medical, separated wastes (European Commission, 2008). The appearance of SARS-CoV-2 virus caused introduction of new handle of wastes rules both for healthy and infected or sent to quarantine (Liang et al., 2021). It includes collecting of PPE in separate bags and then thrown into mixed waste container, disinfection of reusable containers and means of transport of waste, spraying the bag with a viricidal preparation (concerns the waste of people in isolation) and many others (Ministry of Climate and Environment, 2020). The medical COVID-wastes are classified as a hazardous bio-medical wastes. They must be separately stored, disinfected and properly transported because the SARS CoV-2 virus can survive on materials even 9 days (Nzediegwu and Chang, 2020). The hospital wastes can be neutralized in various technologies such as pyrolysis vaporization incinerator, rotary kiln incinerator, plasma incinerator, chemical disinfection or high temperature steam disinfection (Ilyas et al., 2020, Wang et al., 2020d). Unfortunately, beside the proper hospital wastes treatment, a lot of citizens do not follow rules, which causes significant pollution, especially in urban areas not only in Poland but also over the World (Ammendolia et al., 2021, Ardusso et al., 2021, Boyle, 2020b, Kalina and Tilley, 2020). Besides benefits resulting from protection equipment use, increased usage of plastics, from which gloves are made and their release to water and soil can adversely affect the environment. In the long-term it may pose a threat to living organisms including humans.
Plastic debris degraded under environmental conditions to microparticles can be ingested by marine organisms and get to the human food chain (Mattsson et al., 2017). Due to the fact that various substances/components are added to polymeric materials during the manufacturing process ( Table 1), a possibility of release of these substances/components during contact with water and/or soil may appear (Meng et al., 2020, Thompson et al., 2009). There is not covalent bonding between additives and polymers and their leaching is possible and easy (Bagel-Boithias et al., 2005, Gewert et al., 2015). These leachable substances may get to the water and soil, circulate in the environment and in consequence contaminate drinking water and human food chain (Bank et al., 2020, Waring et al., 2018). Data collected in Table 1 shows that commonly used plastic additives may variously affect living organisms health and contribute to the development of numerous disorders. Additionally, microplastics may play a role of contaminants carrier due to the ability of adsorption of various inorganic and organic pollutants (Bouwmeester et al., 2015). This review summarizes predicted risk of environmental pollution resulting from increased usage of disposable protective gloves (DPGs) during pandemic COVID-19 associated with possibility of contaminants release from gloves materials, pollutants accumulation on their surface and the effects of gloves materials aging contributing to changes of their properties.
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