Sanitary protective masks, Photo: Profimedia Images/Vladimir Smirnov/TASS
The German government announced on Thursday that it incinerated approximately three billion sanitary masks purchased during the COVID-19 pandemic, but which remained unused and expired in the meantime, reports the DPA agency, taken over by Agerpres.
The announcement was sent by the German Ministry of Health, in response to a parliamentary inquiry. According to this ministry, about half of the approximately six billion masks purchased have already been destroyed, using the method of “thermal recycling”, a process that uses incineration to generate energy.
The German government has so far spent about eight million euros for the destruction of the stock of expired masks, an operation awarded through public tenders to external contractors.
But this massive destruction of unused masks has reactivated heated political debates on government decisions regarding public procurement. Germany's Court of Auditors revealed in 2024 that the federal government purchased about 5.7 billion masks, for which it paid about 5.9 billion euros, “although the actual demand was much lower.”
Der Spiegel also wrote on Thursday that another 85 million masks in stock will have to be destroyed by the end of this year, as they will exceed their expiration date. About 360 million more stored masks cannot be used because they are the subject of disputes with suppliers claiming unpaid payments. Most of this stock will eventually be destroyed as well, the same publication also states.
Only about 2.12 billion sanitary masks were distributed in Germany during the pandemic, according to official data cited by Der Spiegel.
