Good bank holiday weekend? Feeling rested and re-energised? Or just even more baffled about what constitutes essential travel and exceptional circumstances during a pandemic?
Still, at least Boris Johnson ended the weekend with somewhat clearer lockdown messaging. Non-essential high street shops, department stores and shopping centres will be allowed to reopen from 15 June, he announced.
This is, of course, terrific news for all sorts of reasons – not least because it implies another easing of the ‘stay at home’ rules. And it means many retailers will now be working hard over the next few weeks to become what the PM called “Covid ready”.
According to government guidelines updated yesterday, this will entail such familiar measures as “using screens or barriers to separate people from each other”; “looking at how people walk through the shop and how you could adjust this to reduce congestion and contact between customers”; and “encouraging customers to use hand sanitiser or handwashing facilities as they enter the premises”.
What’s not included is any advice on hygienic packaging and carrier bags. But it’s darn likely plastic will continue to be the solution in both instances. There are, after all, already concerns among grocery shoppers and retailers about the likelihood of infection from reusable cloth bags, paper packaging and even unwrapped food.
The government has already waived the single-use plastic carrier bag charge for online grocery deliveries, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see more shoppers opting for plastic bags again when they finally hit the high street.
Which, while understandable, is a troubling prospect – and one starkly underlined by two studies published last week. First, a team at Plymouth Marine Laboratory found that “the abundance of microplastic pollution in the oceans is likely to have been vastly underestimated” The Guardian reported. The research “suggests there are at least double the number of particles as previously thought”.
This was followed by a report from Cardiff University and Greenpeace Research Laboratories at Exeter University. It found that “the dipper, one of Britain’s most iconic bird species, eat hundreds of microplastics every day via their insect prey – and inadvertently feed them to their chicks.”
It’s not just birds ingesting plastic, of course. It’s worth being reminded that humans swallow and inhale tiny particles by the hundreds of thousands every year.
All of which adds up to a single, simple entreaty: once retail is back on its feet, and virus concerns continue to ease, we must once again seek a cure for our addiction to plastic.
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