Germany gets rid of hundreds of millions of expired surgical and FFP2 masks that cannot be used or placed on the market anymore. They will most likely be incinerated.
The federal government of Germany will get rid of at least 755 million masks that were ordered in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that their usage date expired, they will most probably be burned.
The federal ministry of Health published a tender notice in May for external disposal companies to take care of “medical consumables and supplies.” The material must be “recycled” and will most likely be incinerated and become a substitute energy source.
A spokesperson of the federal ministry of Health confirmed the information to the German newspaper Welt. At least 660 million certified surgical masks and 95 million FFP2 masks are included in the tender, or approximately 13 percent of the stock the federal government bought during the pandemic.
The ministry of Health has already incinerated about 3 million masks. Federal states have or will be getting rid of dozen millions of face masks, but figures don’t come close to the scale of this tender.
The thousands of tons of medical supplies going to waste are split into seven lots and stored in various warehouses across Germany and need to be processed by the end of May 2026. They are made up of about 90 percent of surgical masks and 10 percent of other personal protection equipment such as disposable gloves, surgical gowns and surgical caps.
Critics point to the former minister of Health, Jens Spahn, who was in office when the purchases took place.
Kathrin Vogler, spokesperson of the Left Party for health policy, said on Twitter that “Spahn’s overpriced procurement is now crowned by tax-financed destruction. On the other hand, millions of people had to and still have to save to buy masks.”
To fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Germany bought 5.8 billion masks for about 6.3 billion euros (7 billion dollars), according to the Federal Court of Auditors, which in 2021 retrospectively reprimanded authorities for a “massive over procurement.” The Court said the federal government also overcompensated pharmacies and hospitals for distributing masks.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Germany was open to paying up to 4.5 euros (5 dollars) per FFP2 mask and had to close the tender as the 500 million euros (550 million dollars) budget was far exceeded quickly.
According to the tender, the estimated value of the medical supply to be destroyed is now worth only 7 million euros (7.7 million dollars).
In Hungary, authorities are unsuccessfully trying to sell thousands of useless ventilators bought during the COVID-19 pandemic that now pile up dust in warehouses.
