Impact of COVID-19 on the qualitative and quantitative aspect of household solid waste. (Special Issue: Covid-19.)

Houshold waste is the residue generated daily by people as a result of consuming goods and services. The qualitative and quantitative aspects depend on the lifestyle and standard of living of citizens. Hence a change in habits, following an economic or health crisis, can influence the production of waste and its composition. The objective of the present work is to assess the impact of lockdown on the generation of trash and on the habits related to the consumption of goods in two communes in Morocco. More specifically, this study would investigate the behavior of citizens with regard to protective equipment against the coronavirus COVID-19. The results of the survey show that there is an influence of lockdown on the items purchased during this period, with an increase in the purchase of disinfectant products and a decrease in the consumption of meat and canned goods. Thus, the results showed that the quantity of organic fractions had decreased in the domestic waste with the appearance of other fractions such as residues of cleaning products. In addition, the survey conducted showed that 87% of respondents mix coronavirus protective equipment with household waste, which may contribute to the spread of the virus. Concerning the quantitative aspect, the weigh-ups showed that the monthly rate of increase of waste production between the months of February and March 2019 and the corresponding period in 2020 have decreased from +11.41% to +3.8% in the city of Khenifra (from 2,572 ton in Mars 2019 to 2,456 ton in the correspondent period in 2020) and from +4.73% to -1.23% in the center of Tighassaline (from 136 ton in Mars 2019 to 123 ton in the correspondent period in 2020).

The impact of COVID-19-induced lockdowns during spring 2020 on nitrogen dioxide levels over major American counties

COVID-19 has quickly spread throughout the world, infecting and killing millions of people. In an effort to contain the spread of the virus, many governments implemented stringent lockdown measures. These lockdown restrictions, coupled with social distancing, severely curtailed transportation and industrial activities, which are the primary drivers of nitrogen oxides emissions. This study investigates whether lockdown orders in the United States have impacted tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels by evaluating 12 major counties with a total population of 38 million. For each county, Sentinel-5P satellite data were obtained and analyzed to determine NO2 column concentrations during the pre-lockdown, peak lockdown, and loosening lockdown periods in 2020. Then, NO2 levels were compared during these three periods to the same time frame in 2019. Our results show that the lockdowns in the 12 major U.S. counties analyzed led to a significant decline in NO2 levels, with an average reduction of 28.7% (+/- 14.6%) and 17.6% (+/- 10.9%) during peak lockdown and loosening lockdown periods, respectively.

The dramatic impact of Coronavirus outbreak on air quality: Has it saved as much as it has killed so far?

The outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was first reported from Wuhan, China, on December 31st, 2019. As the number of coronavirus infections has exceeded 100,000 with toll deaths of about 5000 worldwide as of early March, 2020, scientists and researchers are racing to investigate the nature of this virus and evaluate the short and long term effects of this disease. Despite its negative impacts that obliged the World Health Organization to declare COVID-19 epidemic as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, the rate of mortality of this infection has not exceeded 3.4% globally. On the other hand, the mortality rate caused by ambient air pollution has contributed to 7.6% of all deaths in 2016 worldwide. The outbreak of COVID-19 has forced China to lockdown its industrial activities and hence dropped its NO2 and carbon emissions by 30 and 25%, respectively. This work reports on the first case study that compares the air quality status before and after the crisis. It sheds light on the facts related to the demographics of deaths by gender, age and health status before infection. The historical data on air quality, estimates of annual deaths and its economic burden have been presented and analyzed. The actual daily deaths due to COVID-19 have been obtained from the official records of the daily Situation Reports published by World Health Organization as of March 11th. The rate of mortality due to COVID-19 was impacted by two factors: age and health status. Results show that 75% of deaths were related to cases that had underlying present diseases with the majority aged of 80+ years. The reported figures were compared with the average daily mortality due to poor air quality which reached up to 3287 deaths due to high levels of NO2, O-3 and PM. The air quality status before the crisis was compared with the current situation showing that COVID-19 forced-industrial and anthropogenic activities lockdown may have saved more lives by preventing ambient air pollution than by preventing infection. (c) 2020 GJESM. All rights reserved.