One overlooked policy response to the coronavirus has been a changing of attitudes toward plastic.
While plastic has drawn the ire of environmentalists in recent years due to concerns regarding pollution, some businesses are now being forced to use more plastic - as a matter of public health.
In the late 1980s, concerns over the environmental impact of logging for the production of paper products, and a belief that plastic bags were more sanitary, led to a widespread adoption of the material in the U.S. As a returning Navy veteran in 1989, after having been in Iceland for 18 months, I remember going to California and being asked "Paper or plastic" for the first time.
Grocery stores have also had to rethink plastic in the age of coronavirus.
The shift toward plastic has also been extremely pronounced when considering the sale of water bottles.
It will be interesting to see what the public's appetite for single-use plastic bans will be once fears of the coronavirus dissipate.
While we share the concerns about plastic pollution in the ocean - the vast majority of which stems from nations other than the U.S. - and are fully supportive of private sector efforts to address this, such as Evian's decision to shift to bottles made from 100% recycled plastic, the coronavirus has served as a reminder as to why we use plastic in the first place.
https://issuesinsights.com/2020/05/26/coronavirus-has-more-americans-rethinking-plastic/
While plastic has drawn the ire of environmentalists in recent years due to concerns regarding pollution, some businesses are now being forced to use more plastic - as a matter of public health.
In the late 1980s, concerns over the environmental impact of logging for the production of paper products, and a belief that plastic bags were more sanitary, led to a widespread adoption of the material in the U.S. As a returning Navy veteran in 1989, after having been in Iceland for 18 months, I remember going to California and being asked "Paper or plastic" for the first time.
Grocery stores have also had to rethink plastic in the age of coronavirus.
The shift toward plastic has also been extremely pronounced when considering the sale of water bottles.
It will be interesting to see what the public's appetite for single-use plastic bans will be once fears of the coronavirus dissipate.
While we share the concerns about plastic pollution in the ocean - the vast majority of which stems from nations other than the U.S. - and are fully supportive of private sector efforts to address this, such as Evian's decision to shift to bottles made from 100% recycled plastic, the coronavirus has served as a reminder as to why we use plastic in the first place.
https://issuesinsights.com/2020/05/26/coronavirus-has-more-americans-rethinking-plastic/
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