Carrie Lee
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, single-use plastic (SUP) has become paramount to healthcare staff and the public, resulting in excess waste. Each COVID-19 test is around 10g of plastic. Consequently, if every child and adult in the UK tested twice a week, this would amount to more than 1000 tonnes of plastic waste per week, in turn, filling an Olympic size swimming pool in less than a month (Dunn, 2021). With a ‘throw-away culture’ among society and no alternatives to SUP, ecological health is facing an inevitable decline.
This research provides a critical review of plastic usage throughout the pandemic while obtaining public attitudes on their use and understanding of the impact, furthermore, determining the relationship between ecological and human health. The findings concluded a change in the items consumed throughout the pandemic. However, the items commonly used are still SUP, this reaffirming that the dominant perception of plastic is the role of a protector rather than a polluter (Parashar and Hait, 2020).