Single-use plastics in PPE becoming major driver for climate change

Fears that used PPE will put further pressure on the environment

That was one of the findings from a Green Party-hosted webinar on the environmental costs of personal protective equipment (PPE) and sustainable healthcare, which explored evidence showing huge amounts of unnecessary global healthcare wastage, as well as in Ireland.

Dr Mandeep Dhaliwal, the United Nations Development Programme director of health and development group, told the webinar that before the Covid-19 pandemic, emissions from global healthcare were more than 500 coal plants.