1.2 Impacts of COVID-19 on Plastic Pollution

This discussion shows how many links in the plastic value chains are financially broken. The market and policy distortions create a vicious cycle of high costs and low willingness to pay for sustainable plastic management measures, resulting in the entrenched linear, throwaway model of the plastic value chain. Theoretically, there is a considerable amount of valuable material in waste streams, but this material is currently not recoverable on commercial terms; therefore, it is not an asset but a liability.

Several consumer goods companies have committed to increasing the recycled content of their products or decreasing the use of virgin material, but the demand for recycled content has not yet led to market creation at scale. These companies are developing new products and marketing strategies under pressure from consumers or existing and anticipated regulations in a handful of countries. Much stronger regulatory and consumer behavior changes are needed to increase consumers’ and companies’ willingness to pay for recycled content or to switch from colorful, multimaterial, singleuse plastic products to more sustainable substitutes.

So far, in only a few market niches are customers willing to pay more for reusable, alternative, or easy-to-recycle and easy-to-repair products made from simpler, lesscolorful monomaterials that can be recycled multiple times into the same product (for example, bottle to bottle). In some sectors such as food, COVID-19 has even led to a surge in single-use plastics (see box 1.2). Increasing volumes of private investment have recently

BOX 1.2 Impacts of COVID-19 on Plastic Pollution

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated plastic pollution, with the surge in singleuse plastic in the food industry and for protective equipment. The handling of COVID-19 cases has added even more pressure to existing and often inadequate waste management systems. It has revealed some of the key drivers of the plastic pollution problem, in particular recycling markets that have been upended by both low oil prices (which made virgin plastic cheaper) and reduced demand for recycled materials because of hygiene concerns. Waste pickers, who were already vulnerable, are even more in harm’s way than before, losing their livelihoods and being exposed to the virus in their work. In the first months after March 2020, the implementation of plastic pollution policies and regulations stalled in some countries and cities, including short-term “quick-win” instruments, such as (a) delays or temporary lifting of bans on single-use plastics or (b) delays on the reuse of refillable containers. Building back greener, in a more resilient and inclusive way, provides a new impetus to drive policy changes that create a sustainable future and raise the demand from countries to address plastic pollution, as reflected in the ongoing international dialogues.

Source: World Bank.