THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON ENVIRONMENT AND ITS ECONOMIC REPERCUSSIONS

INTRODUCTION

The pandemic of COVID-19 has affected human life in the worst possible ways. The lockdown in many countries has affected their administration, economy, and human life. The norms of the normal have since changed. In the early days of the pandemic, there have been many instances where we saw wildlife breathing freely on roads or observed clear skies. This was thought of to be the silver lining of our dark times. It was believed that once we successfully conquer the pandemic, the environmental conditions would be much better than they were before.

Additionally, there was another consequence that we were sure of- that the global economy would take a massive hit from this pandemic. Both formal and informal sectors in every industry have faced huge losses. Many people have lost their jobs, had their businesses closed, or have lost a lot of money because of their investments in share market. This created havoc- concerns were raised about the economy on macro and micro levels.

Although, the pandemic is not yet over, we have still managed to survive a year of the onslaught of COVID-19. This article aims to study the adamant claims made in the beginning of this pandemic and thereafter observe if they are absolute in nature.

IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON THE ENVIRONMENT

During this pandemic, everyone believed that being locked in their own houses would have a healthy impact on the environment. Fewer factories were operating and there was decreased pollution generated from cars or other modes of transportation. All though these were some narrower beneficial consequences, the overall impact on environment due to COVID-19 was not positive at all.

Firstly, being trapped inside the house for more than a year, the generation of household garbage was significantly higher this year. A research conducted in UK suggested that throughout the lockdown, the household plastic waste had increased to 128 pieces per week from 99 pieces per week for an average household. This increase collectively represented that 3.6 billion pieces are being disposed of per week in the UK. It also mentioned that even if a family was trying to avoid plastic waste by keeping it to a bare minimum, they still produced 17 pieces per week. It was found that a majority 68% of such household plastic waste was coming from food and drinks. While 128 pieces per week was an average, the highest plastic waste among such families per week was recorded to be 734 pieces. (Petter 2020)

Many factors have resulted in such increase in household plastic. One of them was due to an increase in food takeouts during this pandemic. According to a report by NDP group, there was a 63% hike in the takeout orders and a 67% increase in delivery orders in the US. (Study: Digital Orders, Check Averages Jump as Traffic Declines 2020)

Secondly, this past year, the medical waste has been exponential. This includes personal protective equipment (PPE), gloves, face masks, head covers, plastic coveralls, hazmet suits and syringes among other gears and medical equipments used by both healthcare providers and patients. In June 2020, India generated 3,025.41 tonnes of COVID-19 related bio-medical wastes and this figure spiked to 5,490 tonnes in September 2020. (Ahuja 2020)

The 2019 pandemic created an unexpected rise in medical emergencies, which have led to an increase in healthcare staff for the medical institutions. According to a research conducted, there has been a hike of 35% in the job postings for healthcare workers in US since 2020. (Jaye 2020) With the increase of healthcare workers, the medical wastes have started to rise. It was observed that such a rise was directly linked to the number of COVID-19 cases. As the numbers started to increase, so did the medical staff and per patient count of equipments such as masks, sanitizers, etc. and eventually this increased the medical wastes.

According to a bio-medical waste industry expert, there are three crucial steps to handle this waste. First is to define COVID wastes; then to identify different types of waste generators; and lastly to launch a campaign for education and awareness related to PPE usage for both healthcare and non-healthcare sectors.

Thirdly, there has been a worldwide increase in the use of sanitizers. During this lockdown, their usage has skyrocketed. It is expected that the sanitizing industry would become a $3.6 billion market by 2026 in US alone. (COVID-19 – THE DEMAND FOR HAND SANITISER AND INCREASING PRODUCTION CAPACITY BY PIGGING 2020) After the production process, these chemicals are disposed off in water-bodies, killing organisms and polluting water, which resulted in ecological imbalance. Additionally, these sanitizers come in plastic packaging, causing further damage to the environment. The expansive usage of sanitizers and their disposal must be handled responsibly; ensuring that they do not end up polluting water bodies.

ECONOMIC REPERCUSSIONS OF COVID 19

This pandemic has had a drastic impact on the global economy. The unemployment rate, the GDP growth, and the shutdown of many businesses have been the focal issues among several others.

The year 2020 had been catastrophic on global, regional and individualistic levels. In the last one year, it is estimated that around 81 million people have lost their jobs globally (81 million jobs lost as COVID-19 creates turmoil in Asia-Pacific labour markets 2020). Additionally, the working hours have been on a decrease, leading to lessened wages for the laborers. The maximum number of people who lost their jobs belonged to the age group of 18–25 years. Most of the jobs were lost in high-risk sector industries such as food services, manufacturing, wholesale, retail trade, real estate, etc. The employment loss was more prominent in wage earners than people who were self-employed.

The Indian economy took a great toll because of the pandemic too. The country had gone through a rigorous lockdown, which had an adverse impact on the employment of an estimated 346 – 429 million workers. Many of these workers due to their diminishing employment scopes, thereafter migrated back to the rural areas from the urban cities and towns they were previously residing in. (Asia–Pacific Employment and Social Outlook 2020)

While multitudes of individuals were faced the task of survival through the course of the pandemic, many established industries on the other hand barely survived the year. The commercial aviation industry was one of the major industries to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The government-imposed lockdown due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 and thereby implemented travel restriction which reduced the number of flights drastically. According to IATA, passenger air-transport measured as revenue passenger kilometre was down by 90% year-on-year in April 2020 and still down by 75% in August 2020. The collapse in the economic activities and trade affected freight, which was almost 30% lower year-on-year in April 2020 and still lower by about 12% in August 2020.

Airline companies were faced with two uncertainties: operation costs were likely to increase in the short-run for both airlines and airports because of additional health and safety requirements (e.g., disinfection, PPEs, temperature checks or viral infection tests). Moreover, implementation of air-transport and social distancing measures could force a reduction in the passenger load factor (i.e., the number of seats that can be occupied during a flight) by up to 50%.

International travel restrictions, the contraction of economic activities and changes in transport behaviors by cautious travelers may prevent a return to pre-crisis demand levels, even as lockdowns and domestic travel restriction measures are loosened in many countries. Commercial air traffic is slow to recover. In September 2020, the number of flights still remained more than 40% below pre-crisis level globally. (COVID-19 and the aviation industry: Impact and policy responses 2020)

All these reasons led to an economic recession in the year 2020. It was anticipated that this year, the economy would shrink by 5.2%. (COVID-19 to Plunge Global Economy into Worst Recession since World War II 2020) This economic recession is expected to be the worst yet since the World War II.

But among all such losses and downfalls, the one industry that was booming were the Indian pharmaceuticals. This industry was known to make abundant medicines for cold and cough. During the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, one these drugs was found to battle COVID-19 to an extent. Suddenly, the global demand for this industry rose. Another factor that added to Indian pharmaceuticals’ global success was that worldwide, no country wanted to procure their drugs from China. Hence the demand for drugs then shifted to the Indian pharmaceuticals. This pandemic has had short-term as well as long-term benefits for this industry.

CONCLUSION

The COVID-19 pandemic has left the world scarred, not only due to the catastrophic loss of human lives, but also with regards to the environment and the economy. When the year had begun, notwithstanding all the deaths and lockdowns, all that everyone could see was the silver lining- that this period would have a beneficial impact on the environment, reducing pollution levels and improving the air quality levels. All though some of these benefits did accrue during the lockdown; overall there has been a detrimental impact on the environment, with the growing medical wastage contributing towards the same, among other factors.

Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the global economy. Industries such as tourism, food industry and real estate have faced huge losses this year. Some of the impacts of such a downfall were that the share-market was extremely low this year, which impacted several people’s earnings. This in turn led to a significant increase in unemployment rate, especially for working persons aged between 18-25 years. All these factors ultimately led to the economic recession of 2020; which some experts have pointed out as being the worst recession since World War II.

To conclude, the author would state that this past one year has been especially tragic for everyone without any silver lining in sight. It has impacted human lives, the economy, global relations, the environment and the administration all across. The world must come together and cooperate; planning their defense strategies to overcome all the losses heralded by the global pandemic, while also focusing on their routes to recovery post the deadly pandemic.

REFERENCES

2020. 81 million jobs lost as COVID-19 creates turmoil in Asia-Pacific labour markets. https://www.ilo.org/asia/media-centre/news/WCMS_763819/lang--en/index.htm.

Ahuja, Aastha. 2020. India Generated Over 18,000 Tonnes Of COVID-19 Related Bio-medical Waste In 4 Months, Experts Call To Reduce, Reuse And Segregate. https://swachhindia.ndtv.com/india-generated-over-18000-tonnes-of-covid-19-related-bio-medical-waste-in-4.

2020. Asia–Pacific Employment and Social Outlook. International Labour Organization. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---ro-bangkok/---sro-bangkok/documents/publication/wcms_764084.pdf.

2020. COVID-19 – THE DEMAND FOR HAND SANITISER AND INCREASING PRODUCTION CAPACITY BY PIGGING. https://www.hps-pigging.com/covid-19-the-demand-for-hand-sanitiser-and-increasing-production-capacity-by-pigging/.

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2020. COVID-19 to Plunge Global Economy into Worst Recession since World War II.https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/06/08/covid-19-to-plunge-global-economy-into-worst-recession-since-world-war-ii.

Jaye, Matt. 2020. What COVID-19 is Doing to Healthcare Hiring. https://www.tlnt.com/what-covid-19-is-doing-to-healthcare-hiring/.

Petter, Olivia. 2020. Household plastic waste increased in lockdown, shows survey. https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/household-plastic-waste-footprint-lockdown-uk-a9662456.html.

2020. Study: Digital Orders, Check Averages Jump as Traffic Declines. https://www.qsrmagazine.com/news/study-digital-orders-check-averages-jump-traffic-declines.