The return of ‘single-use’ food packaging to fight the pandemic

Food and beverage manufacturers and retailers in Asia have to resort to greater use of ‘single-use’ disposable food packaging amidst COVID-19 pandemic, as this form of packaging offers the ‘safest’, ‘cheapest’ and ‘easiest’ solution to curtail the spread of the coronavirus.
Despite a decade of education on the harmful effects of such packaging over the environment, these manufacturers have to put aside the ‘sustainability’ aspects and focus on ensuring a steady but ‘safe’ supply of their food products to consumers. For example, loosely-packaged meat, vegetables and fruits are now often treated with suspicion as they come into physical contacts during distribution and with the shoppers, which indirectly increase the risk of infection. At one point in time, grocery retailers in Vietnam, Malaysia and other ASEAN countries are actively discouraging the use of plastic to wrap these products and encourage shoppers to bring their own bags.
With the growing need for ‘single-use’ plastic packaging, this might hurt companies’ as well as developing countries’ sustainability goals in the near future. This will be clearly seen in densely populated countries like China and India, where food supplies need to be rapidly distributed to its huge population.
In addition, the growing demand for food delivery and takeaways will warrant the increasing use of disposable packaging by restaurants, cafes, food stalls and supermarkets. Consumers view such packaging as safe and hygienic, although recent research showed that COVID-19 virus can remain on plastic surfaces for as long as 3 days.
As such, a better solution to ‘safe’ packaging need to be found while the world is fighting this pandemic. For the time being, people are advised to observe proper hygiene practices like washing their hands often with soap and to wear mask and observe social distancing.