The global disruption caused by the COVID-19 has brought about several effects on the

environment and climate. Due to movement restriction and a significant slowdown of social and
economic activities, air quality has improved in many cities with a reduction in water pollution in
different parts of the world. Many tourists’ spots have been fully restored from further
destruction. Wildlife has repopulated in the wild and many other species have recovered from
the brink of extinction. However, over the course of the pandemic, many negative effects have
taken place due to dehumanising activities conducted by humans in all states. Besides,
increased use of PPE like face mask, hand gloves, buddy suit etc., their haphazard disposal,
and generation of a huge amount of hospital waste has negative impacts on the environment.

As many manufacturers have shut down from operating, it has significantly brought a sudden
drop of greenhouse gases emission. In Malaysia alone, All 68 air quality monitoring stations in
Malaysia were selected to conduct a study to monitor air quality in Malaysia. The result has
shown a huge decrease of air pollutants. As the Movement Control Order (MCO) took place,
many of the Malaysians were restricted from traveling whether domestic or internationally.
Hence, it has indirectly reduced the emission of the greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide
and nitrogen dioxide. Major cities like Kuala Lumpur, Shah Alam, Klang and others also
received the positive impact from the betterment of air quality during MCO.

Water pollution is a common phenomenon of a developing country like India, Malaysia and
China where domestic and industrial wastes are dumped into rivers without treatment. During
the lockdown period, the major industrial sources of pollution have shrunk or completely
stopped, which helped to reduce the pollution load. In recent news in Malaysia, a small stream
in Jasin, Melaka, has greatly improved its quality that the water has turned crystal clear. Many
aquatic flora and fauna have taken this chance to recover. The redundancy of resources that
supply most of the water nutrients has contributed to more opportunities for them to strive.
Traveling is not anyone’s top priority at this point, hence the government of every country can
focus more on preserving and conserving their ecotourism spots all over reigned regions.

However, to protect from the viral infection, presently people are using face masks, hand gloves
and other safety equipment, which increase the amount of healthcare waste. It is reported that,
in the USA, trash amount has been increasing due to the increase of Personal Protective
Equipment (PPE) use at the domestic level. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the production
and use of plastic based PPE has increased worldwide. For instance, China increased the daily
production of medical masks to 14.8 million since February 2020, which is much higher than
before. However, due to lack of knowledge about infectious waste management, most people
dump these (e.g., face mask, hand gloves etc.) in open places and in some cases with
household wastes. Such haphazard dumping of these trash creates clogging in waterways and
worsens environmental pollution. It is reported that face masks and other plastic based
protective equipment are the potential source of microplastic fibers in the environment. Usually,
Polypropylene is used to make N-95 masks, and Tyvek for protective suits, gloves, and medical
face shields, which can persist for a long time and release dioxin and toxic elements to the
environment. Though, experts and responsible authorities suggest for the proper disposal and
segregation of household organic waste and plastic based protective equipment (hazardous
medical waste), but mixing up these wastes increases the risk of disease transmission, and
exposure to the virus of waste workers