A Fighting Chance
The pandemic is having untold reverberations throughout different cross-sections of society, upending healthcare systems and sending economies into a tailspin, but an unintended upshot is a reduction in air pollution. As people the world over hunker down, working remotely and self-isolating when possible, a small silver lining has been a cutback in overall emissions caused by automobiles and air travel. That’s the good news.
The bad news is the same can’t be said for discarded waste. The pandemic has brought about a pronounced uptick in the use of plastic, the main component in masks, gloves, hand sanitizer bottles, takeout containers, packaging and other items necessary for our new hyper-vigilant way of life. Insidiously, single-use plastic has made a comeback. Organizations that are diligently removing plastic report a
