Should We Be Using Reusable Grocery Bags During the COVID-19 Pandemic?
By Eleanor Willner-Fraser, NSEN Community Engagement Volunteer
Like with just about any topic related to the environment, the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the planet are difficult to judge. Of course, you’ve probably seen the maps that show dramatic decreases in air pollution in countries badly hit by the pandemic, such as China. With so many people around the world on lockdown, there have been substantial reductions in energy consumption and heavy-polluting activities like surface transport and industrial production.
A study published in Nature Climate Change in May found that, at the peak of the pandemic in April, global carbon emissions had decreased by 17%. According to Environment and Climate Change Canada scientists, Toronto and Montreal saw decreases of over 30% in nitrogen oxide emissions between mid-March and May, while Edmonton and Calgary saw reductions of over 40%. Atlantic Canada’s nitrogen oxide levels were already too low for the maps to pick up. Nitrogen oxide is a major pollutant that often comes from burning fossil fuels, including the gasoline used in cars.
The other side of the coin involves the increased use of products like disposable masks and gloves, disinfectant wipes, takeout food containers, and single-use plastic bags. The Austria-based International Solid Waste Association estimates that the use of single-use plastics has increased by a whopping 250 to 300% since the start of the pandemic. I’m no environmental scientist and can’t speak to quantities of energy used or nitrogen oxide emitted, but one statistic that I am certain about is that I received 22 single-use plastic bags from my local Atlantic Superstore during the period when it banned reusable bags.
My Superstore is normally proud to describe itself as the first bagless grocery store in Nova Scotia. Loblaw Companies Limited has been charging a fee for single-use plastic bags since 2009, although that fee has been waived during the pandemic to encourage shoppers to leave their reusable bags at home. The retailer’s pandemic policy on reusable bags varies by location, with some stores banning reusables, while others accept them as long as customers bag their own items.
The Retail Council of Canada reports that, in Nova Scotia, “Reusable bags are permitted but not encouraged.” Sobeys, the province’s other major grocery store chain, has been more consistent about allowing customers to bring—and pack—their own bags. That company only stopped giving away plastic bags in its stores on January 31 of this year, switching to providing paper bags for 10 cents.
The reasoning behind the discouragement of, or outright ban on, reusable bags is that they could transmit the coronavirus. After all, we don’t know where they’ve been kept or when—if ever—they were last washed.
We know that coronavirus can survive for several hours, or even days, on surfaces. A March study in The New England Journal of Medicine found that the virus lives on plastic for up to three days, although by that point the virus is down to less than 0.1% of its starting size. We don’t yet have the scientific evidence about fabric, although the virus appears to survive more on hard surfaces than on soft ones. So, the virus could just as well be passed along on plastic bags, although the ones by the grocery store checkout have been handled by fewer people than reusable ones have.
Of course, we must take the necessary public health precautions, but it’s worth asking how likely it is that the virus would even be passed along on a reusable bag. On June 22, 119 scientists living in 18 countries signed a statement saying that reusable containers are safe to use during the pandemic, as long as we wash them properly. A 2010 University of Arizona study found that 97% of shoppers randomly selected in Tucson, Los Angeles, and San Francisco never washed their reusable bags. The researchers did comment that carefully washing reusable bags kills most of the bacteria that reside there.
It turns out that we should be washing our reusable bags at least once a week, just one of those hygiene best practices that was far from most of our minds before March. Throw cloth bags in the washer on the highest possible setting with your usual detergent. For reusable bags made of plastic or nylon, wash the inside and outside with soap and water, then spray or wipe them down with diluted bleach or another disinfectant. In either case, make sure that the bag is completely dry before putting it away.
We should keep in mind that the virus is transmitted most often via respiratory droplets, not objects and surfaces. The question of which grocery bag to bring to the grocery store should hardly be our top priority in fighting the global pandemic. However, the plastics industry would like us to dwell on this issue. On March 18, the American Plastics Industry Association requested that the United States Department of Health and Human Services endorse single-use plastics as the most sanitary option.
This seems like a case of what author and filmmaker Naomi Klein calls disaster capitalism, or private industry trying to make a profit from a crisis. Bans and fees on single-use plastic bags are already a contentious issue, and coronavirus fears would only make the debate more heated. Nova Scotia is, so far, planning to press ahead with its ban on single-use plastic bags starting on October 30. On July 28, environmental advocacy group Environmental Defence noted on CBC’s The Current that, according to a recent poll, 86% of Canadians want single-use plastic bans to move forward.
The trouble with plastic bags starts with their production, which requires fossil fuels and emits many greenhouse gases. Then, you’re lucky if you get a few uses out of one before the flimsy material develops a rip. Yet scientists estimate that it takes plastic bags over 500 years to degrade and, in the meantime, they litter our streets, trees, and oceans and end up inside marine animals. When plastic does finally break down into tiny microplastics, these can accumulate inside animals, causing serious health issues.
Knowing plastic bags’ terrible environmental consequences, I wasn’t happy about bringing home so many from the grocery store. I read a suggestion online to place items directly in the trunk of your car from your cart, and I’ve seen a few people doing this. This tip seems to promote, or at least assume, a car-centric culture. It would be more eco-friendly to replace “the trunk of your car” with “the basket of your bicycle,” if you have one. Of course, it’s easy for me, who lives within a five-minute walk of the grocery store, to judge. For people whose only option is to drive to the store, of course, put the items in your trunk. For others, I would not recommend taking your car to the store just to avoid getting plastic bags.
If you’ve been accumulating large numbers of plastic bags, like I have, you may be wondering what to do with them all. An obvious answer is to use them again as bags, because, despite their name, these bags are hardly single use. I’d been planning to use them to line my bathroom garbage, but it turns out that there are countless ways to make use of them before disposing of them in this manner.
I’m not sure what I think of turning plastic bags into crafts like pom-poms since they’re not particularly useful, although at least the plastic isn’t ending up in the landfill (for now). Some more-practical uses for plastic bags include scooping up dog poo, keeping books and papers dry, and wrapping up breakable items when moving. Consider, as well, using plastic bags to protect potted plants from the cold, stuff rarely-worn shoes, or store wet paint brushes and rollers in the fridge.
I was excited when I first moved to Halifax to hear that, as long as they’re clean, plastic bags can be recycled (unlike in Ottawa). However, when it comes to recycling, it’s not really as simple as throw it out at the curb, then rest happy that you’ve done your part to help the environment. In 2018, after China stopped accepting our plastic waste, the Halifax Regional Municipality scrambled to figure out what to do with all the film plastics that had degraded in storage. Provincial laws prevented them from going to a Nova Scotia landfill, but not a landfill in a different province. Today, Goodwood Plastic Products Ltd turns the bags into plastic lumber, a material that’s somewhat more useful than pom-poms.
In the end, choosing between reusable and single-use plastic bags is not the most important decision in fighting either climate change or the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it’s a choice that we as individuals have at least some power to make. And since these bags’ impact on the environment and human health is not completely negligible, it’s a discussion worth having with your friends, family, neighbours, and anyone else willing to listen, now and as we enter the post-pandemic period.
Want to join the discussion?
Comment below what you think about using reusable bags during COVID-19.