Rethinking and optimising plastic waste management under COVID-19 pandemic: Policy solutions based on redesign and reduction of single-use plastics and personal protective equipment

Plastics have been on top of the political agenda in Europe and across the world to reduce plastic leakage and pollution. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely disrupted plastic reduction policies at the regional and national levels and induced significant changes in plastic waste management with potential for negative impacts in the environment and human health. This paper provides an overview of plastic policies and discusses the readjustments of these policies during the COVID-19 pandemic along with their potential environmental implications. The sudden increase in plastic waste and composition due to the COVID-19 pandemic underlines the crucial need to reinforce plastic reduction policies (and to implement them into action without delays), to scale up in innovation for sustainable and green plastics solutions, and to develop dynamic and responsive waste management systems immediately. Policy recommendations and future research directions are discussed.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Patrício Silva, Ana L., Prata, Joana C., Walker, Tony R., Campos, Diana, Duarte, Armando C., Soares, Amadeu M. V. M., Barceló, Damià, Rocha-Santos, Teresa
Other Authors:	Centro de Estudos do Ambiente e do Mar (Portugal)
Format:	artículo biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	Elsevier BV 2020-06-30
Subjects:	SARS-Cov-2, Plastic waste, Plastic pollution, Bioplastics, Environmental sustainability,
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10261/216015 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000780 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100006111 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000038 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001871
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