Aravind, I. (2020, October 24). Another pandemic: India’s fight against single-use plastic falls victim to Covid. Retrieved November 16, 2020, from https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/another-pandemic-indias-fight-against-single-use-plastic-falls-victim-to-covid/articleshow/78848847.cms

Although India planned to ban single-use plastics by 2022, and had begun the process of phasing them out, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused them to halt this process. Necessary PPE and disposable containers to prevent the spread of the virus have increased the plastic use by tremendous amounts, about a 47% spike in usage. The country will be forced to postpone its plan for getting rid of single-use plastics, even though many states had already created the legislation to enable the process. Environmentalists say that there needs to be a concrete plan for the phasing out of these plastics.

It is unfortunate that as we come to the point where more and more people are environmentally aware, the pandemic has set back a lot of the efforts against plastic. There are so many disposable items that are required or recommended for keeping yourself safe from the pandemic, and the quick switch to life under the virus did not give people much time to look for sustainable alternatives. Also, because people viewed the pandemic a temporary situation for so long they may have been more okay with using disposable equipment. Hopefully India can get its plan back on track even if it is postponed a little, and that people will not get comfortable with the excess use of single-use plastics.