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Zero Waste Ways to Avoid COVID-19



Sun Tzu’s The Art of War: “Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a thousand battles without disaster."

Enemy #1 these days is COVID-19. While it is very contagious, we know quite a bit about COVID-19 and this can help us determine zero waste ways to defeat it in the thousands of battles we face over the coming months and possibly years.

What we know about our enemy:
  1. Soap and water kill it in ~20 seconds and this works better than hand sanitizers.
  2. Sitting on porous surfaces for 1 day at room temperature kills it.
  3. Sitting on plastic or stainless steel for 3 days at room temperature kills it.
  4. It can last in the air for a few hours but then it dies.
  5. Dilution works against COVID-19 as the number of viruses (“troops”) landing on you matters. That is why being outside is so safe if we maintain distance - our huge atmosphere blows it away and dilutes it so it dies off before it can land on anyone else. Indoors near others is much more dangerous.
  6. Higher temperatures kill it. At 56C (133F) coronavirus lasts only 15 minutes. Higher temperatures (like from cooking) kill it even faster.
We also need to know ourselves. The human body is amazing and has many defenses even if we may not have antibodies for COVID-19 yet.

What we know about ourselves:
  1. Our skin naturally kills viruses and COVID-19 cannot penetrate unbroken skin. It needs to get inside us through our eyes, nose, or mouth.
  2. Nose hair helps stop particles from entering our body.
  3. Mucous (snot) traps and kills viruses.
All those disposable masks and gloves many of us see littering parking lots are a waste of money and resources when there are good zero waste alternatives (using the above information) to greatly reduce the chances of us getting COVID-19.
  1. Physical distance!
    1. This is the most important thing to do and is emphasized by public health officials. People are where the virus breeds. Touching others, touching shared surfaces, or being near others is the greatest risk. Dilution matters -- the fewer enemy troops on you the better. This is an easy zero wastes step.
  2. Reusable cotton face mask!
    1. While simple washable face masks only slightly impede the virus from getting to you, they greatly reduce the chance of you giving the virus to others. Your face mask stops many droplets from your mouth going out into the air around you and onto surfaces. So if people near you wear masks over their mouth AND nose, this is fantastic and we protect each other! Since your face mask is really for protecting *others* there is no need for you to use a disposable one. Just keep yours and wash it periodically.
    2. Disposable N95 masks (which are very hard to use correctly) and surgical masks are not needed by regular citizens and should be saved for health care workers who really do need them as they work in much more dangerous environments.
  3. A jacket and winter gloves!
    1. Gloves can protect you from getting COVID-19 on your skin and then into your eyes, nose, or mouth but you need to handle the gloves correctly for this to work.
    2. Start by wearing a jacket and winter or other stiff gloves and then stuffing your hands into your jacket pockets. Take your gloves off while still in the pockets by squeezing through your jacket from inside each pocket so you can pull the glove off while keeping it in your pocket. To put the gloves back on, jam your hands back into your gloves while not touching the outside of your gloves. Winter gloves are easier to get on and off as they are stiff and not flimsy. No need to disinfect the gloves as they just stay in your jacket pockets and the virus dies in a day if they are cloth gloves or 3 days if they are plastic. Plus dilution works in your favor as not much gets transferred to the gloves or from the gloves. If you want to disinfect your gloves and jacket more quickly, just wash them with your regular laundry. Laundry detergents and water are very effective at cleaning and disinfecting.
    3. You must pay close attention to what you touch with your gloves -- this is real work. Only use your gloves to touch surfaces other people touch. Do not use your gloves to touch your phone, face, face mask, or other surfaces you touch with your hands. You must be very mindful when wearing gloves and masks.
    4. When you go out to do essential business, pop your jacket on with the gloves in your pockets and you are all set to pop them on to open doors, push grocery carts, etc. Just remember to take one off to touch your phone and don’t touch your face with your gloves! And store your face mask in a different pocket from your gloves.
  4. Wash your hands regularly!
    1. Even if you take the above precautions, it is very important to wash your hands regularly with soap and water in case some virus snuck past your defenses.
  5. Put things in quarantine and just wait.
    1. If you are super paranoid about the virus on items you have bought or are shipped to you, just put them in a place where they will be undisturbed for 3 days at room temperature and then they should be virus free. Time and temperature do your disinfection work for you in a zero waste way.  If items need refrigeration or freezing and are washable then you can wash them off before storing them. Fresh produce can just be stored and then rinsed off with water before you eat it. Don’t use soap on produce because produce absorbs soap and the soap gets inside you when you eat it and that’s not good - rinsing with clean water is good enough. Cooking (high temperature) also makes food safe.
    2. Note that when shopping the virus gets diluted multiple times because most items you buy are not handled much by many people, not that much lands on any given surface, even less gets picked up onto a glove, and much less gets transferred from the glove back to other surfaces.  Many experts have pointed out that what you buy in stores is pretty safe without further measures. But a quarantine will do the trick if you want to be super careful.
Being as zero waste as possible will save you money and save us all from the disasters coming after COVID-19. Human's over consumption of resources endangers our future existence. For more see ZeroW.org. Thanks for reading!


References

Knowing our enemy:
  1. Soap/detergents and water kill it in ~20 seconds and this works better than hand sanitizers.
    1. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/cleaning-disinfection.html
    2. https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/when-how-handwashing.html
    3. https://www.consumerreports.org/cleaning/common-household-products-that-can-destroy-novel-coronavirus/
  2. Sitting on porous surfaces for 1 day at room temperature kills it
    1. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/04/how-long-does-coronavirus-live-on-different-surfaces
    2. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2004973?query=featured_home
    3. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/well/live/coronavirus-contagion-spead-clothes-shoes-hair-newspaper-packages-mail-infectious.html
  3. Sitting on plastic or stainless steel for 3 days at room temperature kills it.
    1. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2004973?query=featured_home
    2. https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses#
  4. It can last in the air for a few hours but then it dies.
    1. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2004973?query=featured_home
  5. Dilution works against COVID-19 as the number of viruses (“troops”) landing on you matters.
    1. https://www.sciencealert.com/does-the-amount-of-covid-19-virus-you-are-exposed-to-determine-how-sick-you-ll-get
    2. https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/sars-cov-2-viral-load-and-the-severity-of-covid-19/
    3. Rinsing produce off is sufficient - https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses
  6. Higher temperatures kill it. At 56C (133F) coronavirus lasts only 15 minutes. Higher temperatures (like from cooking) kill it even faster.
    1. https://www.who.int/csr/sars/survival_2003_05_04/en/

Knowing ourselves:
  1. Our skin naturally kills viruses and COVID-19 cannot penetrate unbroken skin. It needs to get inside us through our eyes, nose, or mouth.
    1. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/getting-workplace-ready-for-covid-19.pdf
  2. Nose hair helps stop particles from entering your body.
    1. https://www.healthline.com/health/nose-hair-removal
  3. Mucous (snot) traps and kills viruses.
    1. https://www.immunology.org/public-information/immunology-related-activities-and-resources/the-secret-life-snot
  4. Safety of shopping:
    1. “There is no evidence that food or food packaging has been linked to getting sick from COVID-19.”
      1. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/essential-goods-services.html
    2. Don’t use soap on produce, just rinse with water.
      1. https://www.foodnetwork.com/healthyeats/healthy-tips/2020/03/how-to-wash-your-produce


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