The COVID-19 pandemic shook our understanding of reality — what we had considered normal or ordinary became a myth many of us wondered if we would ever return to. Many of us became recognizable by only our eyebrows and eyes. Our schools transitioned to fully remote or hybrid learning. Supermarkets digitally molded themselves after our favorite online shopping websites.

Paranoia became normalcy. Every vegetable would be disinfected and washed with soap. Most masks were disposed after one use. Plastic gloves replaced our real ones.

In hospitals, a worldwide need for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) arose. Countries lent each other a hand, the United Nations stepped in; hazmat suits and K-N95 masks became a necessity.

All of this accumulated as waste. All the leftover equipment, the used and discarded PPE: nobody knew where it went. It certainly didn’t magically disappear.

As we were transitioning back into what we thought was normal, our wildlife became entangled in the pandemic we had known: organisms suffocating in discarded plastic gloves. Animals strangled with surgical mask ties.

Tenmund Foundation was birthed by Nethra Srimal out of the need to find ways to mitigate the environmental impacts of medical waste. Seeing the impacts, both direct and indirect, of improper medical waste management on environments and communities around her fueled Nethra’s desire to take action.