The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised concerns over the threat triggered by tens of thousands of tonnes of medical waste emerging from global response to the COVID-19 pandemic on the health care waste management systems around the world as well as human and environmental health. In its latest report, the WHO underlined the need for improving waste management practices amid the ongoing fight against COVID-19.

The 'WHO Global analysis of healthcare waste in the context of COVID-19: status, impacts and recommendations' has estimated that approximately 87,000 tonnes of personal protective equipment (PPE) was procured between March 2020 and November 2021. These supplies were shipped across the world through a joint UN emergency initiative to support the global health sectors' response against the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the report highlighted that most of this equipment is likely to have ended up as waste.

In the report, the authors stressed it is just an initial indication of the scale of the COVID-19 waste problem. The initial numbers do not take into account any of the COVID-19 commodities procured outside of the initiative nor the waste generated by the public such as disposable medical masks.

The authors also reported that more than 140 million test kits have been shipped as part of the initiative. These testing kits have the potential to generate 2,600 tonnes of non-infectious waste (mainly plastic) and 731,000 litres of chemical waste (equivalent to one-third of an Olympic-size swimming pool) across the world. In addition, more than 8 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered globally, resulting in the generation of 144,000 tonnes of additional waste in the form of syringes, needles, and safety boxes.