Background and Objective: Changes in the quantity and quality of waste produced as a result of compliance with health protocols are the result of the COVID-19 outbreak. The present study aimed to determine the quantity of personal protection equipment produced in Tehran and people’s knowledge of its management.
Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical study was carried out on 2560 participants in Tehran through an online survey in spring 2020. Based on the percentage of using masks and gloves, the amount of produced waste was calculated, and Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis statistical tests were run to explore the relationship between the variables.
Results: The overall Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.94, and the rate of mask and glove use was 90.7% and 65.7%, respectively. 70.3% and 52% of the population used two masks and one pair of gloves on a daily basis. The number of daily produced masks and pairs of gloves was 14530407 and 5262666, respectively. Mann-Whitney U-test showed a statistically significant difference between gender and marital status with people’s knowledge of waste management (p <0.05). Kruskal-Wallis test showed a significant difference between the economic status and people’s knowledge of separating the produced waste (p <0.05). People with an increasing income tended to separate the waste more.
Conclusion: Due to the high volume of personal protective wastes and the lacking knowledge of one-third of the participants about the transmission of the virus through contaminated waste, it is necessary to raise awareness of breaking the virus transmission chain.
