Life-cycle assessment reveals disposable surgical masks in 2020–2022 led to more than 18 million tons of carbon emissions

The outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly increased the demand for personal protective equipment, especially masks. Due to the massive consumption, fossil-based disposable surgical masks could result in considerable negative environmental impacts during the process of raw material supply, energy consumption, and final disposal. However, a general lack of actual process-based data on mask production in the existing literature may lead to inaccurate results. Here we explore the entire industrial chain to quantify the environmental impacts of surgical masks across its whole life cycle. Life-cycle assessment results show that the disposable surgical masks in 2020–2022 have led to more than 18 million tons of carbon emissions and 1.8 min of health life lost per person worldwide on average. These findings have implications for the sustainable development of the mask industry and introduction of combined policies of addressing both health and environmental issues associated with mask production and consumption.