COVID-19 Pandemic is Fuelling our Plastic Addiction

Plastic is like an addiction from which we are trying to overcome. The application of plastic is prevalent in every single modern industry.

Shivani Arora
Published on: 16 Aug 2020 11:18 AM GMT
COVID-19 Pandemic is Fuelling our Plastic Addiction
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COVID-19 Pandemic is Fuelling our Plastic Addiction

Vidushi Swami

Plastic is like an addiction from which we are trying to overcome. The application of plastic is prevalent in every single modern industry. The COVID-19 issue highlights the critical role of plastic in our daily lives. Virus control requires single-use packaging due to plastic's versatility and implementation ability though the disposal is an environmental liability.

There are clear explanations why the population switched to plastics as people realize it protects them against the coronavirus. The incorporation of plastic has occurred in all forms of protection against the pandemic. Additionally, personal protection equipment (PPE) has become a necessity for everyone, with plastic leading as the most significant material needed in the manufacturing of masks, face shields, gloves, body bags, and many more. The fear of the virus has skyrocketed demand for these products as the number of reported cases hike at a rapid increase (Sharma et al., 2020).

COVID-19 Pandemic is Fuelling our Plastic Addiction

As a global society, we have learned to rely so heavily on plastic goods that imagining a life without it seems impossible. As a global society, we have shifted our priorities towards ourselves rather than to look at the long term impact of the constant consumption of plastic (Sharma et al., 2020).

The decline in oil prices

Firstly, the pandemic has sparked an oil market crash because oil is an integral part of most plastics, hence it has become cheaper to manufacture. 99% of manufactured plastic comes from crude, natural gas, and coal, which are all toxic and non-renewable commodities. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), if current patterns persist, the plastics industry could account for 14 percent of total oil consumption worldwide by 2050 (Kimani, 2020).

The pandemic has not only terrorized the lives of people but also has caused a glut in plastic waste in uncountable ways. The decline in oil prices has hurt the recycling sector the most, as previously mentioned. Plastic is now cheaper to produce, hence, making it a better and more inexpensive alternative than recycled plastic. The last time we saw a trend like this was in the banking crisis of 2008 that shook the world. In this context, the amount of plastic which had been recycled in China had fallen by 3 million tonnes. Current trends suggest plastic recycling figures could take a similar dive like this though the numbers are most likely to be even worse this time around. Currently, plastic collections are at a halt due to the fear of the virus being spread.

COVID-19 Pandemic is Fuelling our Plastic Addiction

Consequently, it has forced some recycling plants to shut down as the virus can be active on plastic for about 72 hours. The coronavirus has outflanked the plastic recycling industry by taking away the initiative to recycle, as it makes more sense for economies to manufacture new plastic than to recycle (Hicks,2020).

Incremental demand in e-commerce

The decline of oil prices has also given a lot of industries the green light to pollute extensively, which helped in stimulating the recovery of the oil industry. Naturally, all economies hit an all-time low due to the lack of business activity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Government sanctioned lockdowns and stay-at-home orders were implemented, which had caused chaos in the business sector. A boom in e-commerce had pushed global digitalization. Amazon sought a 65% increase in website visits, which had amounted to 2.5 billion customers. The biggest manufacturer in the world, China, saw 25% of their physical goods being sold online in the first quarter, therefore reiterating the steep increase in online consumption.

Plastic is essential in packaging the majority of the products ordered online — and that is not the best kind. Goods are wrapped mostly in multilayered packing, that ensures safety while delivering in flights and trucks. However, the plastic used is nearly impossible to recycle. On top of that, the crowds suffering quarantine ate unprecedented volumes of home orders from restaurants, thus an increase in the quantity of packaging used to deliver food and groceries to households. Such changes will intensify environmental problems along with plastics that already occurred before the pandemic took place (Klemeš et al., 2020).

Businesses that have made precipitous losses would need to cover their costs, which would begin with the cost of production. Therefore, firms will have less incentive to recycle things in this pandemic. According to the ISWA, there has been a 150% increase in the volume of general waste plastic. Concerns arise with the diminishing inclination towards recycling, thus pushing way from a circular economy (Hicks, 2020). The severe consequences of this pandemic will encourage our plastic addiction to a great extent.

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Setbacks by law enforcement

The protection of citizens during this pandemic crisis is the fuel that drives current government policies and decisions to ensure their safety. The government has retracted previous bans due to many concerns about our safety as well as cross-contamination. Thus, increasing consumption of PPE, plastic bags, single-use water bottles, and packaging (Sharma et al., 2020). Some plastics industry leaders take advantage of the panic and confusion caused by the pandemic to push plastic products onto consumers. Rallying that safety and caution should be the reason to re-establish widespread use of plastics (Kimani, 2020).

Some rollbacks of the legislation include the retraction of taxation on plastic bags in supermarkets stopping shoppers from bringing bags from home but instead handing them out for free. Hence, increasing the number of plastics bags consumed as well as the amount to be thrown away. Britain, a nation that banned plastic straws, has temporarily withdrawn the ban to ensure the safety of its citizens by not directly drinking from the same cup (Kimani, 2020). Italy, a county that was hit very hard by the pandemic in the early stages, has prevented contaminated people from sorting their waste at all to reduce the chance of virus transmission(Sharma et al., 2020).

Businesses have also made adjustments to curb contamination. For example, Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks have stopped offering reusable mugs and now only serve their beverages in their signature plastic coffee cups. Major supermarket chains are also finding it tough to keep up the demand for single-use plastic products, which includes water bottles, gloves, masks, and many more. Drawbacks the government may face of regulation will be detrimental to the environment until cheap and sustainable alternatives are introduced to the general public. Unfortunately, this has severe implications in the long term, even far after COVID-19 has subsided (Hale & Song, 2020).

What worries conservationists is time invested attempting to shift the mindset of the population towards single-use packaging could be wasted now. Sadly, preliminary results from research indicate that the public has returned to their earlier carelessness about plastic waste. COVID-19 has scarred communities and affected livelihoods globally, and its impact on the planet will linger on land and water (Tenenbaum,2020).

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Application in protective wear

People know that plastic protects them. Leading them to put their faith in it in the medical industry for many years and making it only natural that people trust it will serve as a proper barrier towards the virus. Personal protective equipment (PPE) gloves, face masks, air-purifying respirators, goggles, face shields, respirators, and gowns. Plastics are playing a pivotal part in the protection against the virus. Hitherto, the hygienic and protective aspects of single-use plastics were overlooked in the sustainability conversation, but need to be reconsidered now (Romeo, 2020).

COVID-19 Pandemic is Fuelling our Plastic Addiction

The fear of the global effort in battling plastic addiction undoing itself is on high alert in conservation groups. Numerous countries are rapidly entering an emergency state. Inevitably if no action towards the COVID-19 pandemic is taken, plastic pollution will exponentially increase, estimated a 250%-300% increase in the value of the plastic industry from the United States alone since the infiltration of the virus (Livingston, Desai, & Berkwits, 2020). If plastics are not regulated, facemask production can sore to 129billion and gloves to about 65 billion by the end of the year. These figures already speak volumes about the number of masks that are going to be discarded, not only does this pollute the environment but it also could propagate the pathogen at an expediated rate (Fadare & Okoffo, 2020).

Recently a conservation group, Oceans Asia, who does work in Soko Island an isolated island near Hong Kong found 70 surgical masks on a 100meter stretch this is only in the early stages of COVID-19. It is estimated that the global disposable mask market will grow from a mear $160 million to $116 Billion by the end of 2020 (Fadare & Okoffo, 2020). This only means the level of pollution is bound to skyrocket to the point where there will be more face masks in the sea than jellyfish (The Guardian, 2020).

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In conclusion, the pandemic is a major polluter if it continues along this tangent. The novel SARS-CoV2 has entangled itself heavily with the plastic industry through the application in the decline in oil prices, setbacks by law enforcement, and in protective wear. Even though 2020 has gifted us with many surprises beginning from Australia's wildfire crisis to the pandemic outbreak. None of us would have imagined such drastic changes in our lives, some affecting more rather than others. Yet the battles like our plastic addiction, pollution, deforestation, and global warming came to a standstill. Plastic pollution is one of the most significant global issues that we face.

Insurmountable levels of plastic produced will have one of two outcomes dumping in landfills or incineration, both with negative externalities. Landfills are sometimes nothing more than large open dumps, especially in developing countries. These dumps are responsible for the biggest plastic leakages into oceans. Incineration on the other hand isn’t desirable as the burning of plastic releases toxins into the atmosphere but it doesn’t completely obliterate plastic. The incineration creates nano and microplastics which are carcinogenic and can leak into groundwater and make its way into the ocean.

It is important to shift away from plastics during this pandemic to ensure the wellbeing of the planet for future generations.

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Shivani Arora

Shivani Arora

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