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  [79]New Zealand [80]Country
  11 May 2020

Covid-19 could revive single-use plastics - agribusiness head

  2:06 pm on 11 May 2020

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  Eric Frykberg
  [86]Eric Frykberg, Reporter
  [87][email protected]

  The Covid-19 crisis could be a big setback to progress on eliminating
  plastics, a rural expert has warned.
  No caption

  Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller

  Ian Proudfoot, global head of agribusiness for KPMG, told a webinar the
  desire for health and hygiene could easily trump environmental worries
  about plastics.

  His comments follow a steady pushback against plastics overseas and in
  New Zealand, where it led to a ban on single use plastic bags in many
  parts of the economy with the aim of reducing pollution and reliance on
  fossil fuels, which are a raw ingredient for many plastics.

  Proudfoot warned however that people could easily come to view
  plastic-packaged foodstuffs as clean and safe and could start to insist
  on it, leading to a revival in the use of plastics.

  Proudfoot said it happened in East Asian supermarkets even before the
  Covid-19 coronavirus crisis, and this view could easily spread.

  "I do see a potential problem in front of us.... in which the safety
  element will take priority over the environmental element," he told the
  webinar.

  "What we will see very quickly is the consumer will want [food] that is
  wrapped."

  Proudfoot said the use of biodegradable plastics may offer a solution,
  and New Zealand could help to manufacture them.

  "We produce a lot of trees, we produce wool, we produce fibre products
  and we produce a whole heap of biomass from the products that we grow,
  that is at present fundamentally a waste-stream."

  Proudfoot said those materials could be used to create biodegradable
  packaging and help both the environment and the New Zealand economy.
  Tags:
    * [88]environment

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