How COVID-19 is Harming the Planet

Today's blog post is a little depressing... so, sorry about that... Throughout this weird time in our lives, we've heard the media cover how the planet is recovering from carbon emissions, less people traveling for work, national forest wildlife thriving from the lack of human interaction - but what some aren't talking about is the massive food waste COVID is causing as well as the uptick in plastic pollution and waste.

I am so glad that our planet is getting the much needed rest from human pollution and interaction. It's amazing to see stories on cities being so clear for the first time since the Industrial Revolution or places that haven't seen their mountains for decades like India seeing the Himalayan Mountain for the first time in 30 years covered by CNN Travel. I personally can't wait to see some of these places for myself one day - when all this has hopefully subsided. But when good things go up, some must come down, right? That's where food waste and plastic pollution come into play.

Thanks to the incredible investigative reporting done by Jesse Newman of the Wall Street Journal in her piece titled "Farmers Dump Milk, Break Eggs as Coronavirus Restaurant Closings Destroy Demand" there is a huge downside in the food industry for people staying home. As the demand for household goods goes up significantly, providing shortages of milk, eggs and yes, the notorious toilet paper, the demand also falls significantly for restaurant purveyors or people who provide food and goods to restaurants who either cut their staff, closed up shop temporarily or aren't making enough food to fit the old demand. What happens? Farmers are forced to rid of their product like dumping millions of gallons of milk or breaking thousands of eggs because they have nowhere to sell their product. To coincide with this piece, NBCSN also interviewed Newman on her article, which can be found here.

So if there is a shortage of consumer goods and foods, why can't grocery stores just take over the restaurant supplies and eliminate this waste? Let's just say it's pretty complicated... “To purchase from a whole new set of farmers and suppliers — it takes time, it takes knowledge, you have to find the people, develop the contracts,” said Janet Poppendieck, an expert on poverty and food assistance to New York Times in their food waste article titled "Dumped Milk, Smashed Eggs, Plowed Vegetables: Food Waste of the Pandemic." Most farmers have set up their business to service specific types of restaurants and their needs. To put it simply: “People don’t make onion rings at home,” said Shay Myers, a third-generation onion farmer whose fields straddle the border of Oregon and Idaho. "There is no way to redistribute the quantities that we are talking about." Although this food waste issue is still a huge problem, companies and farmers have taken steps to try and eliminate this waste by providing fresh produce to food banks, charities and people-in-need. Farmers markets are also a great way consumers can buy excess products that farmers are desperately trying to sell.

Now let's talk plastic waste. It's hard to not go out at a public space and not see the new norm - gloves and face masks. With a pandemic comes an increase in expansion and production for much needed supplies such as PPE. I am not saying these items aren't needed because they most desperately are but that plastic waste has to go somewhere. It doesn't just disappear into thin air. Most of the time, I see masks or gloves just left on the street or parking lots outside of grocery stores. It's incredibly sad.

Plastic waste has been an issue since plastic began in production. Remember, ALL plastic items EVER created are still on this Earth today. Plastic degrades after millions of years, if not ever and with corporations and small companies previously creating sustainability actions to try and counteract this plastic waste, COVID has shown that most have rolled back those options for the sake of money. According to CNN International's piece on plastic waste, "The problem has taken a back seat during one of the most significant public health crises of modern times. The implications of those trends could spell years of trouble for our already polluted oceans." The article also goes into great detail on microplastic pollution from PPE and how this affects cities. Definitely give the whole thing a read.

Are we doomed beyond all hope? Is this the end of the world? I most certainly hope not... (but there are giant Asian hornets coming to the US.. soo...) Some advocacy groups are doing their part to reduce the spread of plastic pollution like the Professional Association of Diving Instructors who are making face masks out of ocean plastic pollution or that disposable N95 masks for healthcare providers can now be decontaminated by hundreds at a time. We aren't doomed. We just need to learn to adapt.

At the end of the day, the health of you, your family and your friends are the most important. Sure, you were Zero Waste prior to COVID and now you've used significantly more plastic now than you did before. It's okay. Life will slowly go back to semi-normalcy soon. In the meantime, support your local restaurants with takeout (save those napkins and utensils - you could reuse them!) buy from your local farmers and purveyors and keep listening to the CDC and your health departments on best practices during this unprecedented time.

I wanted to take the time to say thanks to my good friend Julia for bringing this issue to my attention and for providing this topic as an idea for a blog piece!

Photo by elizabeth lies on Unsplash