Empty styrofoam containers at a parking lot of a wholesale food market in Hong Kong on April 25.
Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images
China’s Covid-Zero Policy Is Producing a Deluge of Waste
- Medical waste has jumped more than fourfold in Shanghai
- Packaging for online orders and food deliveries is soaring
China’s lockdowns and restrictions to battle the nation’s biggest Covid outbreak since the early days of the pandemic are causing a massive increase in garbage in its biggest cities.
Waste related to Covid prevention, including those from hospitals, fever clinics and isolation facilities, has increased 4.5 times to 1,400 tons a day in Shanghai from 308 tons before the current outbreak began in March. The city of 25 million residents has been in lockdown for five weeks, and daily household waste related to Covid reached 3,300 tons this month, compared with only 73 tons a day in February, according to People’s Daily.