Plastic pollution has reached a crisis point due to ineffective waste management, an over-reliance on single-use plastic items and a lack of suitable plastic alternatives. The COVID-19 Pandemic has seen a dramatic increase in the use of single-use plastics including ‘COVID waste’ in the form of items specifically intended to help stop the spread of disease. Many governments have utilised COVID-19 as a window of opportunity to reverse, postpone or remove plastic policies off agendas ostensibly in order to ‘flatten the curve’ of COVID-19 cases. In this paper, we use novel methods of social media analysis relating to three regions (USA, Mexico and Australia) to suggest that health and hygiene were not the only reasons governments utilised this window of opportunity to change plastic policies. Beyond the influence of social media on the plastics agenda, our results highlight the potential of social media as a tool to analyse public reactions to government decisions that can be influenced by industry pressure and a broader political agenda, while not necessarily following responses to consumer behaviour.

由于废物管理不力、过度依赖一次性塑料制品以及缺乏合适的塑料替代品，塑料污染已达到危机点。在 COVID-19 大流行期间，一次性塑料制品的使用急剧增加，包括专门用于帮助阻止疾病传播的物品形式的“COVID 废物”。许多政府利用 COVID-19 作为机会之窗，表面上扭转、推迟或取消塑料政策，以“拉平 COVID-19 病例的曲线”。在本文中，我们使用与三个地区（美国、墨西哥和澳大利亚）相关的社交媒体分析的新方法来表明健康和卫生并不是政府利用这个机会之窗改变塑料政策的唯一原因。