THE PLASTIC PANDEMIC

Discarded single use face mask lying on grass

If you’re looking for a quick read over the holiday, you could try How the plastic industry turned the pandemic to its advantage – an article in The Guardian based on a new book which reveals ‘how petrochemical and plastics corporations have fought relentlessly to protect and expand plastics markets in the face of existential threats to business.’

Despite companies voluntarily committing themselves to stop plastic waste, the situation is getting worse, with the Changing Markets Foundation’s report Talking Trash concluding that “the Covid-19 health crisis has, once again, shown that Big Plastic is always primed and ready to co-opt a crisis to its advantage, pushing to undermine environmental legislation or any restrictions on its products … [T]he plastics industry does not have people’s best interests at heart; instead, it is making cold calculations to carry on with business as usual.”

The book highlighted by The Guardian is Plastic Unlimited: How Corporations are Fuelling the Ecological Crisis and What We Can Do About It, by Alice Mah.