Shoebat.com does not pretend or attempt to give the impression of offering investment “advice”. Rather, since it is our responsibility to track trends and put them into their appropriate context with an eye to considering historical, social, religious, political, economic, and other important factors or elements of note, I observed at the beginning of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic that there was a strong chance if the disease became a pandemic (which it did), that plastics companies were positioned to profit handsomely from the crisis, as people would seek out plastic things as plastic is a material with diverse uses that is cheap, easy to make, and can be burned once the use is over.
This observation was made months ago, and as Zero Hedge notes, plastic has come back in style so much because of COVID-19 that even California, who is notorious for her “anti-plastic” stance out of environmentalist reasoning, has had to revert to use of the material for the sake of public safety.
Disposable plates, silverware, and straws are making a comeback in California. New guidelines issued by the CDC recommend restaurants use plasticware by default as a way to limit the spread of the virus upon reopening.
Environmental groups have become infuriated with the new recommendation, as it now means all their hard work to ban plastic straws and push a “Green” New Deal could come to an abrupt end (maybe temporarily) because according to the CDC, throwaway dishes, utensils, napkins, and tablecloths could reduce virus spread.
California recycling and clean water groups recently delivered a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, questioning how exactly plasticware diminishes the probabilities of contracting the virus and also accused petrochemical companies of “trying to influence CDC guidelines for reopening food establishments in their favor.”
“The idea that the CDC recommends that single-use disposable items should be preferred seems a little illogical to me,” Chris Slafter, interim coordinator of Clean Water Action’s ReThink Disposable program, which provides grants to restaurants and advises them on how to transition and replace plasticware to more sustainable products, told Politico. “Someone still has to handle that item before it goes into a customer’s hand.”
In pre-corona times, California and its green activists led the way in eliminating plastic straws and other petroleum‐based plastics from the restaurant industry as they have long criticized the items eventually end up in the oceans, polluting and killing wildlife. (source)
Since we predict that COVID-19 will likely see a return come the fall for a variety of reasons, it is likely still not a bad time to consider looking at plastic as a potentially profitable business commodity in these times.