The pandemic produced more plastic than the five major CPG companies combined
The downside of Covid safety measures
It turns out that the Covid-19 pandemic has led to an increased demand for single-use plastics, intensifying pressure on this already out-of-control problem. According to this research study, more than 8 million tons of pandemic-associated plastic waste have been generated globally.
This is way ahead of the annual plastic production of the five largest plastic-generating consumer goods companies in the world.
If this wasn’t bad enough, more than 25,000 tons of the pandemic-related plastic waste are expected to have entered global oceans. For context, most of the plastic is from medical waste generated by hospitals, dwarfing contributions from personal protection equipment and online-shopping packaging materials.