LOS ANGELES TIMES: Plastic pandemic in Covid era
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Long before the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19 first jumped to humans the world was dealing with another plague threatening human health and wellbeing: plastic trash.
Plastic from single-use products has been filling up landfills over the last seven decades, ever since it became widely used in commercial products. In more recent years discarded plastic has increasingly turned up in oceans, lakes, rivers and on the shores of waterways globally.
In recent years the world started to wake up to the threat of disposable plastic trash and take steps to curb its use. Then the pandemic hit, and humans turned to plastic goods for protection. Plastic face masks, gloves and face shields have guarded countless people from exposure to the coronavirus. Plastic takeout containers have allowed restaurants to continue to operate when in-person dining was banned. And groceries wrapped in layers of plastic packaging have allowed consumers to feel their food was safe from contagion.
The resultant increase in plastic trash is as disheartening as it was unavoidable given the urgent need to slow the spread of the virus. But that doesn’t mean humans can’t and shouldn’t continue to find ways to reduce plastic trash.
California legislators have a proposal before them to do just that, an ambitious plan that would shift the state from the failed recycling policies of the past to a more promising approach. The proposal would establish the groundbreaking California Circular Economy and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act, which would put the responsibility for and the cost of dealing with discarded plastic packaging and takeout containers where it belongs: on the companies that make them rather than the consumers who buy them.
The bills would require that by 2032 products sold in plastic packaging in the state have a proven recycling or composting rate of 75%. If products couldn’t meet that high bar, they would have to be wrapped in some other material that does. The mandate could end up benefiting the entire country because manufacturers aren’t likely to switch packaging for just this one, enormous consumer market. /Los Angeles, August 23
Los Angeles Times
Plastic from single-use products has been filling up landfills over the last seven decades, ever since it became widely used in commercial products. In more recent years discarded plastic has increasingly turned up in oceans, lakes, rivers and on the shores of waterways globally.
In recent years the world started to wake up to the threat of disposable plastic trash and take steps to curb its use. Then the pandemic hit, and humans turned to plastic goods for protection. Plastic face masks, gloves and face shields have guarded countless people from exposure to the coronavirus. Plastic takeout containers have allowed restaurants to continue to operate when in-person dining was banned. And groceries wrapped in layers of plastic packaging have allowed consumers to feel their food was safe from contagion.
The resultant increase in plastic trash is as disheartening as it was unavoidable given the urgent need to slow the spread of the virus. But that doesn’t mean humans can’t and shouldn’t continue to find ways to reduce plastic trash.
California legislators have a proposal before them to do just that, an ambitious plan that would shift the state from the failed recycling policies of the past to a more promising approach. The proposal would establish the groundbreaking California Circular Economy and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act, which would put the responsibility for and the cost of dealing with discarded plastic packaging and takeout containers where it belongs: on the companies that make them rather than the consumers who buy them.
The bills would require that by 2032 products sold in plastic packaging in the state have a proven recycling or composting rate of 75%. If products couldn’t meet that high bar, they would have to be wrapped in some other material that does. The mandate could end up benefiting the entire country because manufacturers aren’t likely to switch packaging for just this one, enormous consumer market. /Los Angeles, August 23
Los Angeles Times
