Abstract
Personal protective equipment (PPE) waste has been proliferating in the urban environment since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. PPE waste can harbor pathogens, pollutes the environment and contributes to climate change in its incineration and landfilling during disposal. Based on data from 15 neighborhoods in the city of Boston, MA, USA, including primary geocoded PPE waste data, and socioeconomic and social capital data from secondary datasets, this study used hot spots-cold spots analysis and bivariate Spearman correlations to examine spatial patterns and associations between PPE waste and key variables. The results show that areas with lower social capital and lower median household income had higher amounts of PPE litter overall and per 100,000 residents. Areas with higher numbers of Big Belly waste collection receptacle bins had less PPE litter, whereas PPE litter tended to cluster around major hospital and medical facility locations. The implications of these findings can help inform urban and regional policymakers about where to place smart Wi-Fi-enabled waste receptacles, ways to target public information campaigns aimed at enhancing urban waste-reduction dynamics and how to optimize waste collection using geospatial metrics. Overall, the results and implications highlight the importance of proper waste system planning and implementation across neighborhoods of varying structural indicators for both pandemic resilience and global climate change mitigation.
Presenters
Gloria SchmitzStudent, PhD Candidate, M.A., Graduate Certificate in Data Analytics, Northeastern University, Massachusetts, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Education, Assessment and Policy
KEYWORDS
Waste, Waste Management, PPE, COVID-19 Pandemic, Social Capital, Circular Economy
