Italy garbage dips with virus lockdowns, but plastics rise

Italy produced 10% less garb during its coronavirus lockdown, but environmentalists warn that increased reliance on disposable masks and packaging is imperiling efforts to curb single-use plastics that end up in oceans and seas.

Italian researchers estimate that during peak months of Italy’s lockdown in March and April, urban waste production fell by 500,000 tons. That decrease is enabling dumps in Italy - where trash collection in major cities has often become a hot-button political issue  - to absorb 300,000 tons of extra waste from protective masks and gloves estimated to be used this year, according to Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research.

“Substantially, figures will balance each or by end of this year,” Valeria Frittelloni, institute’s he of waste manment and circular ecomy, told Associated Press.

experience at Malagrotta general waste treatment plant seems to confirm trends foreseen by ISPRA.

plant, which on a daily basis treats and separates 1,250 tons out of total 4,000 tons of general waste produced in Rome and at Vatican, did t suffer any extra worklo due to coronavirus measures.

But pandemic dealt a blow to efforts to move away from single-use plastics in many places where y were just beginning to become mainstream. U.N., Greenpeace, Italy’s Marevivo environmental organization and or such groups are warning that continued reliance on single-use plastics will pose longer-term risks to environment.

That’s particularly true for a country with a long coastline along Mediterranean Sea, which is plagued by tiny bits of broken-down plastic kwn as microplastics.

“We don’t have an estimate yet of how much of those objects were dumped in environment, but what is sure is that all those that have been abandoned sooner or later will reach sea,” said Giuseppe Ungherese, he of anti-pollution campaigns at Greenpeace Italy.

After years of reducing reliance on products like plastic bags and cutlery, in line with European Union directives, Italy saw a huge spike in plastic use during coronavirus emergency. Italian National Consortium for Collection and Recycling of Plastic Packs said increase in online shopping and its related packaging led to an 8% increase in plastic waste, even within an overall decrease in garb production.

Italy’s National Center for Research reported in 2018 that presence of microplastics on surface seawater off Italy’s coasts was comparable to levels found in Great Pacific Garb Patch, collection of ocean debris that spans part of that ocean.

Globally, U.N. Environment Program has warned that increased use of single-use plastics in protective equipment could le to uncontrolled dumping and d to marine pollution, and it has urged countries to develop equate disposal plans. U.N. Tre body, UNCT, estimates that worldwide global sales of face masks alone will reach $166 billion this year, up from $800 million in 2019.

Even before COVID-19 crisis, only a quarter of Italy’s waste was recycled, with an estimated 53 kilotons of plastics leaking into Mediterranean each year, according to environmental group WWF.

“Plastics and global warming are main threats, and we need to act w to prevent our planet and sea from transforming into a hostile and unlivable environment,” said Greenpeace’s Ungherese.