Waste Management and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Developed and Developing Countries: A Mexican Case Study

Abstract

Most countries have considered waste management as a high priority since it is a problem of environmental pollution and resource depletion. The main goal of implementing environmental policies is to find or create ways to manage waste beneficial for social, environmental, and economic aspects. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the amount of waste generated got out of control, and therefore, the traditional way of handling waste was insufficient. Contextually, this chapter aims to analyze the strategies, regulations, and measures imposed by the governments of Japan, the United Kingdom, Mexico, the United States, and China to compare between them their way of controlling waste and the effects that the pandemic has left regarding the increase in waste and their way of managing them.