Covid 19 coronavirus: Agribusiness head warns single-use plastics could return

Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller

By Eric Frykberg of RNZ.

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.

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website

"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.

- RNZ