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COVID-19 in Europe: increased pollution from masks, gloves and other single-use plastics

News Published 22 Jun 2021 Last modified 09 Feb 2023

2 min read

Photo: © Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

The coronavirus pandemic has challenged European societies in many ways. The European Environment Agency’s (EEA) briefing, published today, analyses the pandemic’s effect on the use of certain single-use plastics products, which cause greenhouse gas and other emissions and can end up littering the environment. It also brings useful lessons to improve our response to future disruptive events.