Opinion: “How the Coronavirus Pandemic Can Spur Environmental Progress”
By John Felts
The coronavirus pandemic is the defining event of our decade. Overnight, the impact on our lives and the economy has already been measurable. The loss of human life has been heartbreaking, and the global fight to prevent spread has been courageous. Amid the devastation, as the CEO of a bio-benign materials producer, I was hopeful that widespread lockdown may unintendedly lead to improvements in the environment after reading news of reduced air pollution and cleaner waterways.
However, environmental benefits were soon found misleading as scientists traced the impact of quarantines to pollutants such as increased post-consumer plastic waste. In Israel, experts are already warning of the damage to efforts to limit single-use plastic taking “months or even years to move in the right direction again.”
A 2019 Stanford University study found Americans dispose 25% more trash during the six-week Thanksgiving to New Year’s period. The extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of garbage, or about 1 million extra tons per week. This accounts for increased waste from deliveries, additional food, and more durable goods coming into homes. We can and should expect a comparable amount during this extended period of home lockdown. Although eco-conscious San Francisco reported an initial increase of 5% consumer waste, experts warn of a larger increase due to the switch to single-use plastic citing health concerns amid the pandemic, and a national figure has yet to be released.
In addition to the marked increase in home deliveries, the suspension of regulation on plastic bag bans, and of recycling programs, compound the waste overload. Some municipalities are temporarily suspending recycling programs altogether as the assessed health risk of sorting material outweighs the benefits of recycling. Further, warnings about new regulations on how potentially hazardous medical waste may impact waste management have been issued.
Key industries using recycled plastic, like automotive, are being impacted and demand is likely to be markedly reduced. By contrast, packaging demand in many areas is set to soar as consumers are expected to favor plastic-wrapped food driven by hygiene concerns, and because of the widespread use of plastic in cleaning and hygiene products. If plastics are not being recycled, and oil prices stay low, post-consumer plastic may be dropped in favor of virgin plastic.
So what are the solutions to these unprecedented environmental problems, exacerbated by COVID-19? The need to accelerate alternatives is irrefutable — from both the policy and technology fronts.
California lawmakers are on the brink of finalizing legislation (AB 1080 and SB 54) to enact the California Circular Economy Pollution Reduction Act. If signed into law, it would impose a comprehensive regulatory scheme on producers, retailers, and wholesalers of single-use packaging, requiring all packaging to be recyclable or compostable. However, it is now unlikely this legislation will now advance to the Governor, due to pressing issues. Yet a strong argument could be made that new solid waste regulations, and incentivizing production of compostable alternatives, is part of a holistic COVID-19 response.
Similarly, federal legislation, the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2020 was introduced in February by US Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) and Representative Alan Lowenthal (D-CA.) This bill outlines comprehensive steps to reform our country’s broken recycling system. The act would require producers to take responsibility for collecting and recycling waste and standardize recycling and composting. Yet this bold legislation also will not advance unless without broad understanding of why such regulations are needed more than ever due to our COVID-19 crisis.
Regarding innovation, California is often well-positioned. Already, eight states have banned single-use plastics. But more policy levers are needed in order for new technologies to turn this tide and change behavior. Public policies aimed at reducing solid packaging waste will help ensure our recovery from this pandemic will not only benefit the economy, but also the environment and public health for the long term.
Author — John Felts is CEO of Cruz Foam which has created sustainable materials for packaging derived from bio-waste and can be reached at john@cruzfoam.com
