COVID-19 and Plastics: How the Pandemic Highlights the Need for Sustainable Waste Disposal
Scientists alert that COVID-19 has greatly
exacerbated plastic pollution and propose a paradigm shift towards a plastic
circular economy
The
COVID-19 pandemic caused an explosive increase in the demand of disposable
plastic products, stalled the implementation of sustainable policies, and
evidenced the inherent problems of today’s waste management schemes. Now, in a
recent article in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, scientists
comment on the necessary courses of action for governments, industries,
researchers, and consumers to help us transition to a sustainable plastic
circular economy.
From left to right:
Xiangzhou Yuan (Research Professor), Xiaonan Wang (Associate
Professor), Binoy Sarkar (Lecturer), Yong Sik Ok (Full Professor)
The COVID-19 pandemic caught most of us off-guard, with governments and
institutions having to quickly implement new safety policies and citizens
rushing to acquire masks, gloves, and other cleaning and protective items. The
timing of the pandemic was particularly unfortunate because humanity was just
beginning to really focus on another global threat that, by now, has markedly
worsened: plastic pollution.
But how is the COVID-19 pandemic related to plastic waste? In a recent article published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, a research team led by Professor Yong Sik Ok from Korea University
comment on this important issue. They describe past and current trends in
plastic consumption and waste management and explain the impact that the
COVID-19 pandemic has had in these regards, as well as how we should respond to
these changes to shift into a plastic circular economy in the foreseeable
future.
The consumption of plastic skyrocketed in 2020 during the first months of
the outbreak, with estimations indicating that twice the amount of plastic
waste was generated in total in 2020 compared with 2019. A significant portion
of this increase came solely from the surge in demand of disposable face masks,
gloves, hand sanitizers, and personal protective equipment. Another part is
related to the huge rise in food takeaway and home delivery services, which
require disposable packaging. To top this off, many regulatory measures and
plans meant to reduce plastic waste had to be delayed or rolled back during the
pandemic, stalling or outright reversing the longstanding global fight against
plastic pollution.
In the article, the researchers highlight the need to accelerate the
transition to novel sustainable practices with regards to plastic waste. “In
the long-term, current plastic waste management schemes alone cannot keep pace
with the estimated growth in waste generation, even if capacity is increased,”
warns Prof. Ok. For this transition to become a reality, everyone will have to
play their part.
Governments should push for new incentives and policies in relation to
waste management, seeing how current strategies have proved woefully incapable
of dealing with the increasing amount of disposable PPE. Better recollection
and separation logistics, as well as novel chemical and mechanical processes to
recycle plastics, are essential to achieve these goals. As for industries, they
should strive to adopt the latest technological breakthroughs in terms of
sustainability. To truly close the plastic loop, they will need strategies for
the long-term upcycling of plastic waste using renewable energy, so as to also
be in line with the current agenda to decelerate climate change. Finally, in
the consumer side, it’s important that more people adopt a ‘refuse–reduce–reuse’
ideology and opt for plastic-free choices when possible.
More awareness of the problems caused by plastics will hopefully kickstart
these changes. To name but a few, plastic pollution causes sickness and death
of marine and freshwater lifeforms, loss of biodiversity, air and soil
pollution in the form of micro- and nanoplastics, and human health issues that
we are just beginning to comprehend. In addition to increased awareness, we
will need research communities to further develop and refine promising
technologies to combat plastic waste. One important candidate is biodegradable
plastics, which still warrant a comprehensive footprint assessment to check if
they will be applicable at the industrial scale. Moreover, efficient catalytic
conversion schemes for plastic upcycling should also take their place in the spotlight
as key enabling technologies to turn waste into value-added products.
Overall, even though our situation looks dire today, we are still in time
to reverse it. “Closing the loop on plastic might not be a reality just yet.
However, heightened consumer awareness, increased industry innovation, expanded
government investment, and continued research can mitigate plastic burdens on
the environment and develop a society guided by a circular economy,” says
Prof. Ok. Let’s hope that, in spite of all the problems the COVID-19 pandemic
has caused, it brings us together in the fight for a more sustainable future.
Reference
Authors
Xiangzhou Yuan1, Xiaonan Wang2,3,
Binoy Sarkar4 and Yong Sik Ok1,5,6
Title of Original Paper
The COVID-19 pandemic necessitates a shift to a
plastic circular economy
Journal
Nature
Reviews Earth & Environment
DOI
10.1038/s43017-021-00223-2
Affiliations
1Korea Biochar Research Center, APRU
Sustainable Waste Management Program & Division of Environmental Science
and Ecological Engineering, Korea University
2Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua
University
3Department of Chemical and Biomolecular
Engineering, National University of Singapore
4Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster
University
5Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University
of Queensland
6Department of Soil and Groundwater Management,
University of Wuppertal