Plastic Pollution and the Pandemic: A cross disciplinary exploration of health risks, perceptions, materials, and histories

Plastic pollution is high on the public, policy and research agendas with anxiety focused on risk to human health from microplastics and nanoplastics pollution. The COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated anthropogenic emissions of plastic waste and created distinct challenges for mitigating the use of single use plastics and fragmentation of plastics in the environment. Pre-COVID, the NHS achieved 62% reduction in 1990 waste levels yet 6 months after the COVID-19 outbreak it used more than 1 billion surgical masks, generating 3 million kilograms of waste (Hopkinson et al., 2021). Widespread public use of disposable face masks, gloves and testing kits contributed to new environmental litter discarded in public spaces, landfill, dumpsites, freshwater and oceans (Fadare et al., 2020). As many as 1.56 billion plastic polypropylene face masks entered the ocean in 2020 (OceansAsia, 2020) significantly impacting on marine flora and fauna. Discarded personal protective equipment (PPE) could play a role in potential coronavirus exposure and transmission in different environments, yet little is known about the health risks of PPE as a vector for disease. Technical solutions alone are insufficient to solve the plastics crisis and humanities and social sciences insights regarding the consumption and disposal of plastics, perceptions of risks from COVID-19 and microplastics; the development and implementation of alternative materials and population heterogeneity and the inequalities of the burden of plastic waste will prove vital to ensure that evidence-based interventions fully address the lived experience of communities.
This project will explore social dimensions of plastics and the pandemic and lay the foundation for an ambitious cross disciplinary analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on the circular economy approach to net zero. Prof. Henderson will mobilise insights from her externally funded research on plastics and social change and significant partnerships with international academics, industry, and policymakers, to co-ordinate this project.

This project draws together academics from Communications, Chemical and Process Engineering and History along with external partners (global engineering consultancy, Mott MacDonald). The main focus is to explore the social dimensions of the impact of COVID-19 and how this might have impacted on policies to drive net zero. The aim is to lay the foundation for future research bids which help create a research cluster to drive new research which combines social and technical approaches to plastic pollution and can develop a more holistic understanding of potential solutions.