Ever since the COVID19 pandemic started, we no longer see ourselves leaving the house without face masks on our faces. Though it’s protecting us humans, it’s actually doing harm to our wildlife and the environment. How? Disposable face masks are made out of non-woven materials which are basically, plastic-based which directly translates to non-biodegradable.
We found out that more than 129 million disposable masks are being thrown away each month -- ever since the pandemic started. And that is terrifying for us to hear knowing it will be broken down into microplastics, ocean and eventually ingested by us.
Although the situation now is inevitable and requires us to double our protection with double masking, we can still try our best to ensure our masks are disposed properly.
- Take off carefully.
Take off your masks using the loops and do not touch the front of the face masks to reduce chances of shaking the trapped pathogens loose.
2. Cut off loops.
We want less harm to be done towards the environment and cutting the loops off will reduce the chances of wildlife getting tangled by it.
3. To the bin.
Head of Clean Seas, Dr Laura Foster mentioned that the best place for the used disposable masks to be in is the bin. And we should be careful and try not to drop it around in public or outside in nature.
