COVID-19 has resulted in an unprecedented surge of single-use plastics – here’s what can be done.
By, Justina Kewal
Have you noticed just as many face masks washed up on beaches and on street corners as are lining our store shelves? These single-use masks often made with plastics such as polypropylene, polyurethane, or polyacrylonitrile, are just one indicator of another global crisis we’re facing along with COVID-19.
When combined with the increase of takeout and online shopping sparked by the pandemic, two questions remain. Has COVID-19 triggered a plastic pandemic? And will the single-use plastic ban proposed for 2021 still be able to pivot Canada to a greener economy?
When Canada’s Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson unveiled a ban on six single-use plastic items, environmentalists from Oceana Canada and Toronto Environmental Alliance saw this as a really important tool and a step in the right direction. However, we can’t ban essential personal protective equipment (PPE) needed for hygiene and safety.
In a phone interview with Ashley Wallis, the plastics campaigner at Oceana Canada says, “In order to have the ability to prioritize medical equipment, we really need to dramatically reduce our use of unnecessary plastics.”
Recycling has long been shown to be a broken system as more and more waste goes to landfills and incinerators, with only nine per cent of plastics actually being recycled in Canada. Wallis uses the analogy, “focusing all your attention on recycling is kind of like mopping up the floor when the tap is still running.” Turning off the tap means looking at proper waste disposal as well as systems that focus on reducing and reusing.
Increasing our use of reusables
While masks play an important role in reducing transmission of COVID-19, improper mask disposal is an emerging source of plastic pollution in our cities.
In a study published in Environmental Pollution, Justine Ammendolia, a marine biologist, and her fellow plastic pollution researcher Jackie Saturno carried out a survey of COVID-19 pollution in Toronto. In a CBC interview, they said they found 1,300 pieces of litter over the course of four weeks. Of the face masks collected, 97 per cent were single-use, while only three per cent were reusable.
Masks are lightweight and flexible, meaning that it’s easy for wildlife to get entangled in them. They are also easily carried away by the wind and can eventually enter our waterways. Ammendolia adds that surgical masks release plastic micro-fibres which poses a great concern to wildlife.
For people not in a medical setting, buying a good quality reusable face mask with a sufficient filter is the best way to stay safe while reducing COVID-19 litter and pollution in waterways.
In a phone interview with CanCulture, Karen Wirsig, a program manager for plastic campaigns at Environmental Defence says, “I think reusable PPE is appropriate because you don’t need a lot of complicated things to wash away the virus. As we know from washing our hands, soap and water is fine.”
Early in the pandemic, many of us were still learning about COVID-19 and how long the virus survived on contaminated surfaces. Industry capitalized on this opportunity to encourage plastics as a safer alternative, such as the Canadian Plastics Industry Association (CPIA) which frequently promoted plastic bags and plastic packaging as being hygienically superior to reusable alternatives.
However, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the virus lives longer on plastics in comparison to cardboard and copper.
“For many Canadians, the first thing they heard is plastics are safer. People are really receptive to the first message they hear, especially in a state of crisis,” said Wallis in an interview with CanCulture. “But in reality, that’s not founded in science and reusables are perfectly good to use as long as you practice good hygiene.”
Sustainable ways to manage PPE waste
However, given the widespread use of disposable gloves and surgical face masks, encouraging a switch to reusable masks is not enough. The pandemic has triggered a monthly consumption of 129 billion face masks and 65 billion gloves worldwide.
Incentivizing deposit return systems is one viable alternative for collecting and managing waste. As COVID-19 hit restaurants hard, the takeout economy has been growing strong, and with it came an unprecedented surge in single-use plastics.
One company that has aimed to tackle waste during the pandemic is A Friendlier Economy in Guelph, which supplies local restaurants with reusable containers. Customers pay a deposit with their meal, the company will pick up the container, clean it and return it to the restaurant.
Emily Alfred, a waste campaigner with Toronto Environmental Alliance, told CanCulture that deposit return systems are a powerful, simple method to reduce waste. “All international research proves that when you put a deposit on a package or a container, people will return it resulting in increases in recycling rates,” she says.
Ontario has a deposit return system for alcoholic containers but is one of the only provinces that does not have a system for non-alcoholic containers. Many restaurants with reusable takeout programs such as La Tasse in Montreal and Reego in Toronto have seen success with deposit systems.
A deposit return system could also work for single-use masks. “If there’s going to be long-term use of PPE and we know that disposable PPE is going to be part of the solution, we need a better capture system to make it somewhat circular,” says Wirsig.
Start small
While governments should take the lead in ensuring there are appropriate systems in place to collect and manage that material, the pandemic has revealed individuals still have a responsibility in reducing waste of their own.
Alfred notes that our overall waste hasn’t increased significantly during the pandemic, but being at home means we can see everything we’re throwing away.
“Right now there is no waste being created in most office buildings in downtown Toronto, or in shopping malls and movie theatres due to lockdown,” Alfred points out. “Being home all the time and seeing the waste created from our daily living provides us with the opportunity to address the system that has created overpackaging,” she says.
As COVID-19 generates an increase in online shopping, there is more concern that packaging waste will end up in the ocean. An Oceana report found that most of Amazon’s plastic packaging such as mailers and bubble wrap have little to no value on the recycling market.
One action Alfred proposes is instead of getting things delivered from Amazon or another large corporation, we can try shopping locally to reduce packaging waste.
The rate that humans are creating plastics is accelerating so fast. But Alfred adds, “We also need to be easy on ourselves. I think we should make small changes so we can understand the system better. We can’t expect every single person every single day to make the perfect decision about waste when the system is so complicated.”