Plastic in Times of Pandemic

Consumer habits have changed over the past year. More deliveries of all kinds is the Amazon effect: restaurants and stores reach our doorstep.

Suddenly, plastics and other packaging fill trash bins and recycling bins. Plastics are showing their utility in this period of health crisis … but single-use plastic has its limits when it comes to recycling!

Will the impact of the epidemic last over time? Have we suddenly become less green? Isabelle Bourgogne discusses it with:

• Sylvain Charlebua, Professor of Agri-Food Distribution and Policy and Director of the Agri-Food Analysis Laboratory at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia
• Karel Maynard, Front commun québécois director of environmental waste management (FCQGED)

What exactly has happened to this increase in plastic, as well as all the waste, over the past 12 months? There was a bit of relaxation at the start of containment, especially on the part of traders. Where are we now? The Amazon Effect: We Consume As Much, But Online? And increase food waste, how do we explain that?

Is the epidemic solely responsible for all these changes?

One in three citizens admitted consuming more plastic-coated products with the pandemic, according to a recent survey – that’s nearly one in three young people. As for regulations banning single-use plastics, they will see a slight decrease among Canadians. Is it temporary?

129 billion masks and 65 billion plastic gloves worldwide since the start of the epidemic. What about the recycling side?

Quebec’s municipalities will transform waste management by adopting, declared before the pandemic, of extended deposit reform and recycling – container producers will be responsible for the life cycle of what they produce. Is the epidemic likely to slow these changes, or even reverse them?

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I vote for science It is broadcast on Mondays at 1 pm on five regional stations from VM Radio. Run by Isabel Bourgogne. Find this offer: Aurélie Lagueux-Beloin. You can also listen to us, among others, on CIBO (Senneterre), CFOU (Trois-Rivières), CIAX (Windsor) and CFLX (Sherbrooke).

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Photo: Roxana Hilscher / Pixabay