The plastic pandemic

Over the last decade, we Europeans have increasingly thrown our weight behind the drive to reduce plastic waste, on the one hand by reducing our plastic consumption at the outset and, on the other, by better managing the waste we produce. From reusable bags to separate bins in our kitchen, we have all developed new behaviours to support the fight. But the pandemic has revealed one major obstacle on the road to a plastic-free (or at least plastic-light) world: the field of hygiene. So, has the...

Over the last decade, we Europeans have increasingly thrown our weight behind the drive to reduce plastic waste, on the one hand by reducing our plastic consumption at the outset and, on the other, by better managing the waste we produce. From reusable bags to separate bins in our kitchen, we have all developed new behaviours to support the fight. But the pandemic has revealed one major obstacle on the road to a plastic-free (or at least plastic-light) world: the field of hygiene. So, has the pandemic set us back in our quest to consign plastic to the bin of history?