Although subjects of a nearly global shortage just a few months ago, an excess of discarded masks and gloves left in the middle of the streets has become a national issue with environmental repercussions. What is worse is that personal protective equipment (PPE) litter is actually more detrimental than other garbage given its ability to potentially spread COVID-19.
Given the seriousness of the issue, local law enforcement across the country has begun pushing forward efforts to try and mitigate the problem by advising citizens to properly dispose of used masks and gloves and threatening them with fines of up to $5,500 when unlawfully disposing of the trash.
But there's more: in addition to being an eye sore and potentially increasing the rate of contagion within a town, "COVID-19 waste" is an environmental hazard. As most littered products are made of plastic, when improperly discarded, they become harmful agents within oceans and bodies of water. Which is to say: not only should you not dump your used protective equipment in the middle of the street, but you should dispose of it in the regular trash—not your recycling bin. Old masks and gloves are contaminated, even if made of rubber or plastic, and are therefore actual trash, not recyclable products.
"The PPE is intended to help us fight a public health challenge, not create a plastic pollution problem," said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, to CNN.
Americans all over the country are becoming more familiar with the issue, some even attempting to take action against it—like one Mark Benfield from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The microplastic pollution professor noticed the vast amount of waste in his neighborhood and decided to actually track it by snapping pictures of it and geotagging them to the location he found them in. He eventually enlisted the help of folks around the country, asking them to email him at covid19waste@gmail.com to expand his survey and try to understand how wide-spread the pollution really is by creating an all-encompassing map.
It seems like, for one thing, the virus has pushed us to be more creative, and helpful, citizens of the world.
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