COVID-19 Changed How We View Environmental Protection

COVID-19 is changing many aspects of our lives. Among those changes, the biggest may be the shift to untact. Work, study, consumption, and everyday life as a whole are moving toward non-face-to-face, non-contact methods. Working from home, online classes, unmanned kiosks, online shopping, and delivery apps have already become part of daily life.

As the concept of hygiene has become more important than ever, now is the time to incorporate untact methods throughout our lives. Not only the coronavirus but also newly emerging infectious diseases such as swine flu and MERS can spread not only through direct contact but also through the air and contaminated objects. In particular, because viruses can survive for several days on the surfaces of everyday items such as glass, plastic, paper, and fabric and cause infection, the shift toward non-face-to-face and non-contact methods to prevent this will inevitably continue to intensify.

First, from the perspective of hygiene, changes are needed in both public perceptions and institutions regarding disposable products. Until now, our society has treated the use of disposable products as taboo in the name of environmental protection. Coffee shops have been required to use reusable mugs instead of plastic cups, and large discount stores have been regulated from using plastic bags or plastic ties. The goal was to reduce waste by cutting back on disposable products. However, as COVID-19 has spread, discomfort with reusable items and goods shared by many people has grown, and the use of disposable products is increasing.

This is an opportunity to ask whether systems that ban disposable products are truly reasonable. From a hygiene standpoint, there is no method as effective and superior as the use of disposable items. Just as hospitals use disposable products throughout patients’ surgeries and treatments, we have entered an era in which disposable products are essential for personal hygiene management. In a situation where deadly infectious diseases such as COVID-19 occur periodically and threaten human life and hygiene, we cannot insist only on the logic of environmental protection.

If hygiene is taken seriously, the use of disposable products is unavoidable. Masks, which we wear every day when we go out, are also disposable products. Recently, antimicrobial film has begun to be attached to frequently touched surfaces such as door handles, bus handrails, and elevator buttons to prevent the growth of germs. In addition, coffee shops are using paper cups and plastic cups instead of mugs, and with the sharp rise in food delivery and online shopping, the use of disposable tableware and plastic packaging materials has also increased significantly. Overseas, there have even been cases in which the use of shopping bags and mugs brought from home has been completely banned to prevent infection.

Furthermore, we need to review whether the various regulations introduced for environmental protection have become fixated on the single goal of the environment while neglecting other considerations. It is important to remain alert to environmental issues, but the logic of environmental protection cannot take precedence over protecting human life and hygiene. Institutions should be improved so that environmental regulations, such as bans on disposable products, do not block individuals’ freedom of choice. Everyone should be free to choose disposable cups, straws, and tableware so that they can take responsibility for their own safety and hygiene.

The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated that environmental regulations are not efficient. As the virus spread, local governments temporarily relaxed regulations on the use of disposable products. Temporarily easing regulations whenever an emergency arises has only limited effect, and it may instead undermine flexibility in responding to infectious diseases. In addition, as awareness has grown that using cups and tableware previously used by others can expose people to the risk of viruses, forcing through the pre-COVID environmental regulations would likely provoke consumer backlash and inconvenience.

We must begin preparing environmental systems suited to changed hygiene standards. Hygienic and environmentally friendly approaches are entirely possible, such as developing biodegradable plastics and thin but high-performance mask filters, and increasing the collection rate of recyclable disposable products. In a situation where the need for disposable products has increased, forcibly suppressing their use will only raise social costs and make it difficult to achieve the goal of environmental protection. Using disposable products in an environmentally friendly way is the method that can achieve both personal hygiene management and environmental protection at the same time.

Eun-kyung Kwak, Director of Corporate Culture Division, Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)

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Original title: 코로나가 환경보호 시각 바꿔놓았다

Author: Eun-kyung Kwak

Date: 2020-05-05

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=press&pn=21&idx=22601