EditorialPandemic is no excuse to trash the environment
- Sustainability is bound to take a back seat in a health crisis. But advances in technology and innovation mean that societies should not have to choose whether to protect health at the expense of the environment
- Every day, millions of discarded face masks are being dumped in Hong Kong’s already overflowing landfills
Like or loathe the design of the face masks that the Hong Kong government is giving free to residents, they have a feature most similar products do not – reusability. With tens of millions of single-use items to protect against Covid-19 being discarded each day, the environmental impact is enormous.
Usually with a large plastic component, much will go into already bulging landfills, although carelessness means some end up strewn around streets, beside trails in country parks and in the sea. Given the risk to public health and marine and wildlife, the administration’s consideration of sustainability is to be applauded.
The masks can be used 60 times by washing them. With at least 8 million to be produced, the goal being to cover the city’s 7.5 million residents and with an extra one for kindergarten and primary school children, the scheme will go some way towards lessening harm to the environment.
But there has already been considerable damage caused by the 4 million to 6 million single-use masks that the government estimates are discarded daily, along with wipes, bottles of hand sanitiser, gloves and food wrappings, in the five months since the coronavirus first appeared. When the lifespan of the free face coverings is over, we will resume purchasing personal protection items for an uncertain amount of time
Companies making masks and other protective gear and coverings have ramped up production, rightly anticipating many months will pass before the pandemic is brought under control. With Covid-19 still ravaging the United States, Britain and other parts of Europe and yet to peak in many developing parts of the world, the global threat will remain for some time.
Fortunately, there are firms run by people concerned about the environment and sustainability who see an opportunity. Among them is the Hong Kong-based start-up Ecoinno, which is working on a plant-based food packaging material that is claimed to decompose 75 days after being put in the soil.
Sustainability is bound to take a back seat in a pandemic. But advances in technology and innovation mean that societies should not have to choose whether to protect health at the expense of the environment. Sight should not be lost of the plastic waste crisis.