Coronavirus upheaval has halted evictions, converted factories into ventilator and hand sanitizer producers and reshaped lives. The virus also seems to be disrupting something unexpected: Plastic bag bans. Like most responses to the pandemic, initial steps came at the local level, with cities and states pulling back on proposed or enacted bag bans. Another state taking a stance during the pandemic linked its choice to sanitation concerns — something the Plastics Industry Association echoed in a letter to federal health authorities.
There’s also been little investigation into whether reusable shopping bags spread disease. In 2018, a team of public health researchers sprayed reusable grocery bags with fake norovirus particles, handed them to shoppers and swabbed every surface the customer touched. The researchers picked up the fake virus with every swab and found the highest concentrations on the shopper’s hands, the checkout stand and the clerk’s hands.
The American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance also declined to comment when asked for scientific evidence indicating that single-use plastic bags are less likely to spread SARS-CoV-2 or other viruses. The lack of evidence presented has sustainability advocates skeptical of these claims.
Source: Waste Dive
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