Will COVID-19 spur a plastic comeback?

Photo: Collected

The novel coronavirus pandemic has changed many things around us, bringing on the ‘new normal’. It has brought back rare pink dolphins to the Cox’s Bazar shore and the almost extinct bayhops to the world’s longest beach. Sea creatures appear in the world’s busiest Venice lagoons for the first time in many years and wild elephants on the Dehradun suburbs of India’s Uttarakhand. The pandemic has produced many of such beautiful pictures around the world. Most of the changes this virus pandemic has made in the nature are hailed as positive.

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Are all the changes beneficial to the nature? Not really! Apart from the deadly blow to the global economy, the pandemic has revamped plastic with a big thumbs-up. The coronavirus hit the earth exactly when the ban on production of plastic goods gained momentum around the world and when many countries, even Bangladesh, banned single use of plastic for the first time in history. Since plastic has been the bedrock of producing protective gear – from life saving gowns and gloves to masks and goggles, the production of the plastic items has increased manifold.

This increasing production of plastic items will have two serious consequences in future. Firstly, growing amount of plastic products will beget a huge quantity of hazardous plastic waste. Subsequently, huge contaminated plastic waste will pose serious challenges in managing it. The waste will have direct impact on the ecosystem as well as on front liners of waste management.

We have already entered the ‘Plastic Age’ where things are obsessively made of the plastic. Before the arrival of the pandemic, the scenario was extremely bad. If this pace of plastic production continues, the damage will arise beyond our imagination. According to estimates by National Geographic, the annual production of plastic was “2.3 million tons in 1950” that rose to “448 million tons by 2015.” It has said the amount of plastic production is “expected to double by 2050.”

NCEAS scientists commissioned a study, published in early 2015, on global plastic inputs that showed “between 5 and 12 million tonnes of plastics enter the ocean annually from land-based sources.” As per the Nat Geo, “half of all plastics ever manufactured in the world have been made in the last 15 years.” Undoubtedly, this time ‘legitimate’ production of plastic will give significant rise to it.

According to estimates by National Geographic, the annual production of plastic was “2.3 million tons in 1950” that rose to “448 million tons by 2015.” It has said the amount of plastic production is “expected to double by 2050.”

The plastic has already brought the sustainability of the ocean ecosystem within a hair breadth of collapse. It has also pervaded the earth’s biodiversity. This increased use of plastic will deepen the scar. According to the Nat Geo, “Nearly 700 species, including endangered ones, are known to have been affected by plastics. Nearly every species of seabird eats plastics.” We actually do not need any scientist to point out the forthcoming catastrophe of the plastic we have already produced.

The plastic has even invaded our stomachs through our food chain. A recent scientific study conducted for the first time on human faeces finds ‘an average of 20 micro-particles of plastic per 10 grams of human stool.’ According to the study conducted by Environment Agency Austria, stool samples of all eight participants from Europe, Japan and Russia contain microplastic particles. “Up to nine different plastics were found out of 10 varieties tested for, in particles of sizes ranging from 50 to 500 micrometres.”

The pandemic has destroyed everything. By now, many nations have stalled the ban on single use plastic and production of plastic products. And those who have not decided yet, simply keep mum.

Secondly, the pandemic has wrecked havoc on the public awareness movement that has been fighting to mobilise social rejection of plastic for many years. The pandemic came when the social consensus against the rampant use of plastic took a new height, when the researches to innovate alternative technology to replace the plastic were being highly praised across the world. The pandemic has destroyed everything. By now, many nations have stalled the ban on single use plastic and production of plastic products. And those who have not decided yet, simply keep mum.

The entire world has waged war against the virus. We must prepare for another battle to contain the offensive of the plastic waste. Once released to the ocean the plastic will be killing us for hundreds of years. The pandemic may be wiped out from the earth once a vaccine is developed, but the damage this plastic waste is going to make will take many years to recover.