A plague of trash descends on US
Pandemic practices have enlarged the waste stream; here’s what you can do
On Instagram, Cindy Villaseñor shares snapshots of her low-waste lifestyle, and she says she hears from followers who are trying to reduce their trash, even if life during the pandemic makes it more challenging.
“Some people, honestly, do get discouraged,” says the Pasadena-based sustainability advocate by phone.
From personal protective equipment to single-use utensils, the demand for plastics has gone up in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s after years of efforts from environmental groups and governments to curb usage of the material.
“The pandemic has made things worse in a couple of different ways,” says J.R. DeShazo, professor of public policy and director of Luskin Center for Innovation at UCLA. Last year, DeShazo and his team released the report “Plastic Waste in Los Angeles County,” which looked at the impact of single-use plastic utensils on local waste streams.
“Because people are not eating in, they’re ordering out much more than they were before and they’re much more likely to increase the amount of plastic that’s in their personal waste stream,” says DeShazo by phone. But it’s not just ordering dinner that contributes to waste. It’s also deliveries from stores, which can increase paper and cardboard waste as well.
“In the good old days I would have taken my reusable bags to Trader Joe’s and I would have bought a mango and brought that mango home in that reusable bag,” DeShazo explains. “Now that mango arrives wrapped in plastic and then wrapped again in a paper bag.”
The result? “That one mango is producing twice the amount of waste that it used to.”
Miles Lewis sees an uptick in packaging as well.
“I do think that there is this return to a feeling that public health has to do with wrapping everything in plastic,” says the Woodland Hills-based artist and volunteer sustainability educator, adding that while people might still understand the environmental issues that plastic presents, they may also be “willing to make the sacrifice for what they see as greater public health.”
For those who have been trying to live more sustainably, attempts to reduce trash to a minimum during a pandemic can be frustrating. Even Villaseñor, who led sustainability workshops and gardening classes before the pandemic, says she’s had her challenges. Much of that was earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic when grocery stores, and even some California counties, banned the use of reusable bags.
“I was trying to figure out my own way of trying to work around it,” she says. Sometimes that meant ordering community supported agriculture, or CSA, boxes instead of going to a store, since she could recycle or reuse the boxes.
Reusable bags did make a comeback, though, and that’s a good place to start working towards waste reduction. Use what you have on hand. “You don’t have to get a linen bag to go to the grocery store. If you got a bunch of plastic bags, just reuse those plastic bags,” says Lewis.
As for those single-use utensils, you can request that restaurants omit them from your order. That’s what Villaseñor has done. “It sometimes worked. It sometimes didn’t,” she says.
Still, making the request helps encourage both delivery apps and restaurants to make these options available. “These things are recorded and they’re analyzed by higher-ups in any of these businesses, both the delivery business and the restaurant,” says Lewis. “Understanding that is a request that people are making signifies to them that
they need to make that a clear option, that they are ready to do that, and that it’s something that their customers want.”
When it comes to shopping, try to consider which options create the least amount of waste. If possible, curbside pickup might be better than mail or delivery services. But if that’s not possible, Lewis has a tip. “Often a more environmentally friendly way to approach that in terms of transport is to have things consolidated through slower delivery rather than same-day delivery,” he says.
Certainly, it helps to be mindful of what you’re buying as well. “Buy used, buy local, if you can,” says Lewis.
Especially now, it’s important to remember to recycle what you can. “Make sure that all the glass and aluminum that you are using gets recycled,” says DeShazo, “because those are the two materials that have an economic value and we really need to make sure that that value is being captured.”
Think about the small changes you can make that may help long-term. Villaseñor says gardening, even a windowsill herb garden, can let you cut back on buying produce that’s packaged in plastic. She also suggests switching to bar soap, if you haven’t already done that, as well as bar shampoo to avoid the plastic bottles.
“There’s always little things that folks can still do,” says Villaseñor. “And it won’t be perfect, especially during this time, because of things that are put in place.”
But making an effort now can help maintain the sustainable practices you developed before the pandemic and build on them going forward.