INTERVIEW
Gloves subscribed in gutters, protective masks found at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea: the images toured social networks and aroused indignation. A few days after deconfinement, waste is again abandoned in the wild. The coronavirus health crisis has consequences for our consumption of plastic and disposable products: a worrying situation for the environment. Laura Châtel, Head of Advocacy at Zero Waste France, an association which campaigns for zero waste and zero waste, reacts on Europe 1.
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"There is an overuse of disposable products and consumption outside therefore a risk of abandonment of waste in nature much higher than before," she notes. "It is a disturbing ecological situation which is becoming palpable for all of us." In a note of hope, she welcomes the strong reactions of citizens, challenged by this type of incivility.
No recycling for these new everyday products
The new objects of our daily life: disposable masks, protective visors, gloves or even hydroalcoholic gel are made of plastic. Looking back after reducing the use of disposables in recent years? "Plastic was still very common in our daily lives, we had not stopped using plastic products, but what had changed in recent months, in recent years, was that there was an awareness , a desire to get out of all-plastic, all-disposable ", underlines Laure Châtel.
"There, thanks to the crisis, we see again arriving a whole bunch of products from masks, protections, wipes also, for the household, which are made of plastic."
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"You absolutely must avoid throwing them in the wild and really, when you can, avoid the disposable," says the advocate for Zero Waste France. "This new waste is very rarely recycled. We are really on new types of product which, in general, have no recycling channels." Thus, they can take hundreds of years to disappear.
"No time to waste"
In France, the government had announced numerous objectives in this area, such as reaching 100% recycled plastic by 2025. For the time being, the latter has been firm and has not given in to lobbying which asked additional time says Laura Châtel.
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"We have absolutely no time to waste in the fight against plastic and it is not this health crisis that should make us forget that there are huge challenges that are coming in environmental terms", indicates- she, recalling the impact on health of the situation. "The accumulation of plastic in the environment can also have health consequences for humans."