Plastic is not fantastic in our present world

The pandemic has filled pages of traditional and online media, so much so that we couldn’t keep our eyes off the dire news of virus variants even though we want to. Once we log on to our social media accounts, COVID creeps up with updates on rising infections, warnings from fully occupied hospitals, and news of death from family, friends, or acquaintances.

What has been left off in the conversation, ironically, is a looming “pandemic” that concerns our environment — a catastrophic plastic pollution that will have intergenerational effects and irreversible consequences for all living things in the planet, flora and fauna included.

The pandemic has exacerbated the world’s plastic pollution problem. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to notice that after more than a year of wearing face shields, donning PPEs, having food delivered in disposable plastic containers, and using single-use plastic utensils, all these would become part of a massive garbage pile that it is inevitable that some of these trash would find their way to rivers, seas, and oceans.