There are only two reasons the plastics industry will change, a polymer scientist once told me: war or legislation. Corporations along the plastics value chain have faced a series of environmental and health crises, from toxic scandals to marine plastic waste and the climate emergency. Each of these crises has led to new laws and regulations, despite business efforts to undermine them.
In the two years leading up to the pandemic, public backlash against plastic was a major concern for industry leaders. As one corporate executive commented during an industry event in early 2019: “We need to get the image of plastic in the oceans out of the public’s mind. Otherwise, we could lose our social license to operate.” Of course, the pandemic didn’t erase the image of plastic in the oceans from the public’s mind. However, it did emphasize in a very real and urgent way the importance of many plastic products for health and hygiene. At the Virtual World Petrochemical Conference in April 2020, an industry analyst commented on this unexpected shift: “Ironically, sustainability, the topic that dominated the conversation until just a few weeks ago, seems to be fading into a take the back seat, at least for now. And polyethylene may even be gaining some public favor as it plays a prominent role in the fight against the greatest risk to our planet’s health in modern history.”
This temporary respite from anti-plastic public sentiment opened the door for the industry to push back against bans on single-use plastics. In July last year, the European Commission rejected the industry’s request to delay the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive. However, multiple single-use plastic bans and deposit return schemes were reversed or delayed in countries around the world, in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Plastic-derived PPE is essential to ensure the safety of medical personnel. Photograph: Héctor Retamal/AFP/Getty Images
During the pandemic, plastic was restored to its original paradoxical state as a miracle and a threat to society. As far as the industry was concerned, that was enough: it had regained its social license to operate. By the end of 2020, industry leaders had fully embraced the new pandemic narrative about the essential role of plastics in society, and many expressed optimism about their future growth. At the virtual World Petrochemical Conference in March 2021, industry analysts identified four key “Covid demand drivers”: food packaging, bag ban delays, online shopping and hygiene and medicine.
As one petrochemical industry executive enthused: “The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted how essential all of our products are to everyone in society around the world. We saw record sales and record volumes of our products during the pandemic… in the long term we can continue to see this kind of growth, and we’ll see that accelerate as economies around the world reopen. This is all really driven by the world’s growing global middle class , and that will drive demand for the products we produce. Covid-19 did not change our long-term view of the fundamentals.”
A key industry tactic is to blame consumers for plastic waste, which diverts attention from corporate responsibility
Hearing these glowing industry reports about the growth of single-use plastics, I couldn’t help but feel guilty about the plastics that have entered my UK home during the pandemic. Many environmental activists and researchers have pointed out that one of the industry’s key tactics is to blame the consumer for plastic waste, which diverts attention from corporate responsibility. The plastics crisis is a systemic problem, however, and most people are locked into supply chains and infrastructure, unable to simply opt out of plastic consumption.
According to a recent study published in the journal Science Advances, the UK is second only to the US in terms of the amount of plastic waste generated per person, with 99kg and 105kg per person per year respectively. Supermarkets with overpackaged food are one of the main problems. By contrast, the world average of plastic consumption is 45 kg per person per year, and only 4 kg per person per year in India. Looking at the consequences of one’s actions, from a privileged point of view, multiplied and intensified around the planet, invites a kind of vertigo.
Gary Stokes, founder of Oceans Asia, poses with discarded masks found on a beach in Hong Kong. Photograph: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images
While voluntary business commitments to end plastic waste have flooded in, the plastics crisis has worsened. Some of the most scathing reports have emerged during the pandemic, such as the Changing Markets Foundation’s Talking Trash report, which concluded that “the Covid-19 health crisis has shown, once again, that Big Plastic is always ready and willing to co-opt. a crisis to their advantage, pushing to undermine environmental legislation or any restrictions on their products… [T]the plastic industry does not have people’s best interests at heart; instead, it is making cold calculations to carry on with business as usual.” The Talking Trash report focused on inadequate voluntary commitments by major plastic polluters in the consumer goods and beverage industries, and the “playbook” corporate to undermine plastics legislation, particularly deposit return schemes and single-use plastic bans.
An important lever for changing the plastics industry has gained momentum during the pandemic: the understanding by many investors and policymakers that green recovery paths to net zero will have to phase out fossil fuels, including virgin (new) plastic. In September 2020, thinktank Carbon Tracker warned investors in plastics about the risk of holding assets stuck in the fossil fuel transition. Plastic is the last pillar of oil demand growth, their researchers argued, but that pillar would soon be removed by increased regulatory and recycling pressures, accelerated by green recovery packages.
The need to reduce plastics’ reliance on fossil fuels has also been featured in a number of policy proposals, coinciding with the push to respond to the climate emergency through post-pandemic green recoveries. The US Break Free from Plastic bill resurfaced in early 2021 under Biden’s presidency, incorporating calls from environmental activists and frontline communities to stop petrochemical projects and hold corporations accountable for waste and emissions throughout the life cycle of plastics. The sustainability of plastics, which incorporates targets of zero net emissions, is also a prominent part of the European Green Deal. In addition, the reduction of virgin plastic production is a central (if contested) issue for debates over the scope of a new United Nations plastics treaty, amid growing recognition by many governments, organizations and researchers that the problem of plastic pollution extends throughout the life cycle of plastics. from the extraction of raw materials to manufacturing, consumption, waste and pollution.
Testing for Covid-19 in medical waste bags. Photograph: Syspeo/Sipa/Rex/Shutterstock
If any insight can be gleaned from the way corporations have responded to the plastics crisis, which has escalated during the pandemic, it is the power of legislation. Binding laws and regulations offer less room for maneuver than voluntary commitments, especially when it comes to bans. The plastics industry is more concerned about the threat of the European Single-Use Plastics Directive, which is binding legislation, than about Ellen MacArthur’s global New Plastics Economy commitment, which is based on voluntary economic commitments circular The absolute ban on specific plastic products, for reasons of environmental protection or public health, effectively removes these products from the market.
The pandemic has made it clear that we need binding legislation and regulations to address the plastics crisis, but we also need another lever for change. We must continue to question the dominant assumption that there can be a continuous growth of plastics on a finite planet. If this assumption could be overturned, aligning with the growing consensus that the world needs a transition away from fossil fuels, this would be a starting point for significant change.
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This is an edited extract from Plastic Unlimited: How Corporations are Fueling the Ecological Crisis and What We Can Do About It by Alice Mah, published by Polity Press (£14.99). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Shipping charges may apply