Research Article

COVID-19 impact on waste management −business opportunity Emirate of Ajman − UAE

University of Derby, Derby, United Kingdom

^* e-mail: k.alhosani1@unimail.derby.ac.uk

Received: 15 February 2021
Received in final form: 21 March 2021
Accepted: 22 March 2021

Abstract

The UAE's lifestyle has recently developed with increased population resulted in an increased waste from different resources (hazardous and non-hazardous). This has significantly got accumulated during the pandemic. Crisis management is one of the most important management practices that need careful modelling to include planning, framework practices, training, and reserved resources. Naturally, a complete plan for the expected crisis is ready for implementation when a crisis starts to reduce the crisis impacts. Moreover, those plans are to cover the periods before, during and after that crisis. Waste is a resource for many health, environmental, and social problems when not managed. Therefore, this paper aims to introduce elements needed in that combination of waste and crisis management and exploring the main critical elements that need to be contained and carefully studied to enhance modern waste management. The presumed management model examines the waste management practices prior to, during, and after the crisis. COVID-19 pandemics have severely affected all nations and critically disabled many services that governments are providing. Data collected for similar periods before and after the pandemic of the waste, including the amounts, practices, and associated outcomes. A concluded resultwas used to introduce a new framework model for the required initiatives of waste − crisis management. Results showed the importance of using the Waste − Business correlation for high-quality management. During the COVID-19 crises, a significant challenge is the massive quantity of regular waste that has become hazardous and required special treatment adding more cost and resulting in recyclable material reduction. The article has concluded that change in the dynamics of plastic, food, and biomedical waste generation during the same time has, however, stirred the woes of solid waste management. The non-hazardous waste was considered hazardous in many cases to minimize the chances of contamination. Inevitably, plastic has increased as personal protection and healthcare items increased with the reduced recycling process to avoid its adverse effect. Private businesses need to support Governmental efforts to deal with contingency. Materials Recovery Facilities (MRF) were getting less waste due to worries of contaminations and virus spreading. All these challenges and practices had a considerable effect on the Government waste associated budget.