a new kind of litter: 3 MILLION face masks are thrown out EVERY MINUTE

[Demovictory9]

Face masks and plastic gloves are found on a THIRD of British beaches
Protective items such as gloves and face masks are found on almost a third of all British beaches following a spike in use due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Marine Conservation Society's annual beach clean-up in September discovered the shocking increase in PPE litter.

This year, volunteers were asked to adopt a 100-metre stretch of beach themselves, and organise their own, smaller beach-cleans with family friends and 'bubbles', in line with Government guidance.

For the first time volunteers were asked to record the number of face masks and plastic gloves they found.

Those items were found on almost 30 per cent of beaches cleaned by Marine Conservation Society volunteers during the week-long event.


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'Considering mask-wearing was only made mandatory in shops in England in late July, little more than three months before the Great British Beach Clean, the sharp increase in PPE litter should be a word of warning for what could be a new form of litter polluting our beaches in the future.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9354939/Face-masks-ticking-plastic-bomb-environment.html

https://www.sdu.dk/en/nyheder/forskningsnyheder/mundbind-er-en-tikkende-plastikbombe

[Amishman]

1. I'm very skeptical of that figure

1,440 minutes in a day, 3 million per minute. 4.32 billion masks per day.

That would mean averaging one discarded mask for every single person on earth roughly every 36 hours.

[Treefrog]

2. I see them everywhere. In DC they're everywhere, in gardens, on the street, parking lots, traffic

islands, everywhere. I hate litter, and people seem to just throw these on the ground. Sickening.

[Me.]

3. THe Netherlands Has Planted Flower Seeds Within Masks

[roamer65]

4. I just leave them in sunlight in the car.

Get a lot longer use from them.