Journal of Health Care and Research

Journal of Health Care and Research

Morganti P^1,2*, Morganti G^3
1Academy of History of Healthcare Art, Rome, Italy
²Dermatol Department, China Medical University, Shenyang, China
³ISCD Nanoscience Research Centre, Rome, Italy

Corresponding Author: Pierfrancesco Morganti ^{ORCID ID}
Address: Dermatol Unit, Campania University, Naples, Italy.
Received date: 23 August 2020; Accepted date: 08 October 2020; Published date: 20 October 2020

Citation: Morganti P, Morganti G. Post-COVID-19: An Opportunity to Produce Biodegradable Goods & Surgical Masks to Save the Environment. J Health Care and Research. 2020 Oct 20;1(3):157-65.

Copyright © 2020 Morganti P, Morganti G. This is an open-access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Keywords: COVID-19, Surgical Masks, Plastics, Waste, Polypropylene, Environment, Polysaccharides, Chitin Nanofibrils, Lignin, PLA, PHA, Starch, GHG Emissions

Abstract

Consumption of natural raw materials is causing climate changing, by an acceleration of glaciers, oceans, and forests’ depletions with the contemporary accumulation of waste materials. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has further incremented the waste material of plastics because of the obligatory use of surgery masks, made prevalently by the non-biodegradable polypropylene. Thus, the necessity to change the way of producing and consuming transforming the linear economy based on the taking, make, and waste in the circular economy of reducing, reusing, and recycling. Changing the actual way of living, it will be also possible to drastically reduce the increasing plastics waste that, invading lands and oceans are entering into the food chain with negative effects on fauna flora and the human’s wellbeing. Just to remember the global production of plastics exploded from 1.5 million metric tons in 1950 to nearly 350 million metric tons in 2017 and, disposed to the landfill as waste, are producing global greenhouse gas emissions of 2.8 billion tons per year. Being the technology ready, it is proposed to produce natural polymers, such as chitin and lignin which, obtainable from waste materials, may be used to produce biodegradable goods and surgical and beauty masks. By this way it will be possible to maintain the natural raw materials for future generations, saving human wellbeing and the world’s biodiversity.