Savior or destroyer? Plastic is a double-edged sword in the fight against COVID-19

The healthcare industry prefers plastic over other materials for making PPE kits and other protective equipment. However, the pandemic has brought plastic back to other industries as well.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is producing and consuming more plastic than usual, most of which are single-use such as disposable polyethylene (PE). Since the onset of the pandemic, plastic has been at the forefront of COVID-19 response. Medical-grade stuff such as personal protective equipment, ventilator components, thermal scanners, and other critical care systems that use plastic are in high demand as they are vital to fighting the global health crisis. Plastic has become indispensable in the fight against the pandemic, but at the same time, it also has adverse effects on the environment and human health in the long run.

Personal protective equipment like surgical masks are made of polypropylene, the second-most widely produced synthetic plastic in the world, and may take up to 450 or more years to decompose in nature. According to the UN Environment data, of the estimated 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic waste produced since the 1950s, only 9 percent have been recycled and another 12 percent incinerated (destroyed). Emissions from plastics production and incineration also contribute to global warming.

The world produces more than 300 million tonnes of plastic waste every year. Plastic pollution is one of the most pressing environmental challenges and, prior to the pandemic, many countries had banned the production and use of single-use plastic. But the pandemic has prompted them, albeit temporary, to roll back the decisions. The health crisis has paused the global battle against plastic pollution and could reverse years of progress.

The pandemic is further exacerbating the problem as it has accelerated the production of plastic goods, driven by single-use or disposable items such as disinfectant bottles, food packaging material, gloves, face masks, Tyvek suits and other personal protective equipment (PPE), and the volume of waste, especially from laboratories, hospitals, food industry, and households. According to a March estimate by the World Health Organization (WHO), the world needs 89 million plastic medical masks, 76 million plastic examination masks, and 1.6 million plastic protective goggles every month. In addition to the healthcare industry, the food packaging industry has been a major consumer of single-use disposable plastic throughout the pandemic.

Plastic: Savior or destroyer?

Plastic is indispensable in healthcare settings, and there are many reasons why plastic is the material of choice for personal protective equipment (PPE) used to protect essential workers from COVID-19. But there's a big difference between PPE and packaging for food and other goods.

Greenpeace

Plastic, undoubtedly, has been a savior for several decades when it comes to the healthcare and medical industry. The medical industry prefers plastic over other materials due to its low-cost, durability, and versatility. However, the pandemic has brought plastic back to other industries including the food and beverage packaging which is worsening the pre-existing challenge of plastic pollution. Here are a few examples:

Marine conservation organization, OceanAsia, reported a significant increase in marine debris and microplastics, comprising mostly of single-use face masks, piled up in Hong Kong since January 2020.

Thailand, one of the world's top five contributors to marine plastic pollution, witnessed a huge rise in plastic waste particularly from food delivery services and medical masks during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. In April alone, plastic waste soared nearly 62 percent in volume. According to the Thailand Environment Institute, the country is likely to see a 30 percent nationwide surge in plastic waste this year.

Bangladesh witnessed a similar trend in the use of polythene and plastic shopping bags during the crisis. Bangladeshis used an estimated 455 million surgical masks in just one month (April-May), giving rise to an estimated 1592 tons of disposable plastic waste while the capital city, Dhaka, generated COVID-19 related single-use plastic waste around 3076 tons.

These are just a few examples of how the pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented surge in the use of plastic materials. More than half of plastic becomes waste less than a year after it was produced, most of which is then sent to landfills or incinerators, rather than being recycled or reused. If the current trend persists and plastic is not used in a sustainable way, the world will see even more devastating consequences of plastic pollution that may as well result in the next pandemic down the road. In the long-term, the huge amount of plastic waste generated during the global health crisis will pose a serious threat to human health and the environment.

Recommendations

As the world is drowning in the plastic menace, here are some measures that can help in effectively dealing with the problem.

• Strengthening waste management systems

Effective waste collection and management systems are critical to handle normal and hazardous waste produced during the pandemic. If poorly handled, infectious waste will not only affect the environment but also exacerbate the global health crisis. According to a study, the viable COVID-19 virus lasts longer on polypropylene plastic and stainless steel surfaces (up to three days), than on copper and cardboard surfaces (roughly four and 24 hours). Therefore, it is important to limit the use of plastic products, dispose of, and treat the waste carefully to avoid the risk of contamination. Governments and businesses should prioritize investment in strengthening the overwhelmed waste management systems (collection, segregation, and recycling) and apply the 'reduce, reuse, and recycle' approach to plastic management and environmental sustainability.

• Consumption and behavioral change

A real shift in consumers' behavior and mindset is extremely important to beat the growing plastic menace, especially at a time when using plastic is unavoidable to fight the pandemic. Consumers have a major role to play in controlling plastic pollution that can be fulfilled only if they understand their primary responsibility of refusing and reusing plastic items. The reduction and reuse approach not only helps prevent pollution but also saves resources, time, and money needed to produce new products.

To clean up the environment, we also need to rethink the 'throw-away culture' and repurpose the existing plastic products instead of just using them once and then putting them in trash or recycling bins. For example, reusing single-use plastic bottles pose serious health risks, however, they can be repurposed in different ways to create useful products such as planters for the garden, synthetic fabrics. The motive is to find better ways to make better use of plastic waste to reduce its environmental impacts.

Consumers should be encouraged to avoid excessive consumption of one-time or single-use plastic goods, and accelerate the transition to more sustainable alternatives such as adopting reusable shopping bags and cloth face masks to reduce the plastic menace during and after the pandemic. The food and beverage industry, a major consumer and contributor to plastic pollution must also take more responsibility for the ever-mounting waste.

• Innovation

Without an alternative, it's impossible to fully eliminate plastic products from our lives. Accelerating innovations like developing recyclable and biodegradable plastics is critical in the fight against plastic. For instance, a Bali-based company Avani Eco manufactures eco-friendly and compostable shopping bags, straws, and other disposable items made of cassava starch pellets and vegetable oil derivatives.

'Necessity is the mother of invention' and this pandemic is proof that the saying is absolutely true. As waste management businesses are facing many challenges including operational labor shortage and contagion fears due to COVID-19. CleanRobotics has built an automated waste sorting solution 'TrashBot Zero' that identifies up to four separate categories of waste including recyclable, compostable, and landfill. The innovative bot increases the recovery of recyclable materials from waste and reduces contamination at the point of disposal with a sorting accuracy of 95 percent.

In the wake of COVID-19 and the resulting shortage of protective equipment, an Uganda-based company Takataka Plastics that usually transforms plastic waste into quality and affordable construction materials is now manufacturing recycled and low-cost plastic face shields for frontline medical workers grappling with the shortage of personal protective equipment.

• Policy and regulatory frameworks

Given the increased generation of plastic waste during the pandemic, countries around the world need to rethink their waste management systems to keep up the pace with the new normal. National and international governments need to come out with new frameworks and more stringent norms to minimize the production and use of single-use plastics along with requiring plastic producers to handle the waste at the source.

Given its undisputed role in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, plastic can't be avoided entirely in certain sectors, but sustainable consumption and alternative products can help cut down plastic waste and its devastating consequences on the planet and its inhabitants. Sustainable alternatives should be re-employed to reduce the plastic pollution aggravated by the pandemic because single-use plastic products present potential long-term health risks than reusables. Except for the healthcare and medical sector where plastic is an absolute necessity during the ongoing health crisis, the narrative that single-use plastic containers and packaging can help limit the spread of the virus needs to change. The same message was recently conveyed by hundreds of scientists, academics, and doctors from 19 countries who rebuffed the claims of the plastic industry that reusables pose a risk of spreading COVID-19 and encouraged retailers and consumers to safely utilize reusable grocery bags and food containers.

VisionRI's Centre of Excellence on Emerging Development Perspectives (COE-EDP) aims to keep track of the transition trajectory of global development and works towards conceptualization, development, and mainstreaming of innovative developmental approaches, frameworks, and practices.