The Unexpected Environmental Consequences of Covid-19

(Bloomberg) --

Global shelter-in-place orders to battle the Covid-19 pandemic have resulted in a widely-reported climate benefit: cleaner air in China and Europe. But the fallout from the global health crisis hasn’t been uniformly positive for the environment. 

In the U.S., some cities have halted recycling programs as officials worry about the risk of spreading the virus in recycling centers. In particularly hard-hit European nations, waste disposal options have been rolled back. Italy has banned infected residents from sorting their waste at all. 

Industry has seized the opportunity to overturn disposable bag bans, despite the fact that environmental experts say single-use plastics can still harbor viruses and bacteria.

Businesses that once encouraged consumers to bring their own bags or containers have increasingly switched to single-use packaging. In early March, Starbucks announced a temporary ban on using reusable cups.

With China’s consumers stuck at home, there’s been a surge in the amount of household garbage as people increasingly shop online and order meals to be delivered, which come with a lot of packaging.

Medical waste is also on the rise. Hospitals in Wuhan produced an average of over 200 tons of such waste per day during the outbreak, up from its previous average of less than 50 tons.

China has asked sewage treatment plants to strengthen their disinfection routines to prevent coronavirus from spreading through sewage, mostly through increased use of chlorine. Some amount of that toxic chemical has found its way into the nation’s drinking water, though the government says the concentration is under the current allowable limit of 0.3 milligrams per liter.

“The ones that are celebrating the environmental improvements during the Covid-19 crisis are shortsighted,” said Li Shuo, senior global policy adviser at Greenpeace in Beijing. “Pollution may temporarily decline, but this is hardly a sustainable way of cleaning up our environment. Meanwhile, the virus crisis brings other environmental problems that might last for a longer time and are harder to deal with.”

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

With assistance from Bloomberg