For decades, the world’s seas and shorelines have been strewn with plastic bottles, bags and other disposable debris. But over the past year, as humanity armed itself against the coronavirus, a new category of waste joined the scene: personal protective equipment.
In relieving a global health crisis, we have inadvertently worsened an ecological crisis. Since early 2020, the products meant to hold the virus at bay — face masks, gloves, hand sanitizer bottles — have washed up on beaches worldwide, and even on remote islands. “I’m astonished by how much I see when I take walks on the coast,” says Nick Mallos of Ocean Conservancy, who lives in Portland, Oregon. “I think the pandemic has absolutely underscored the importance of proper waste management around the world.”
Face masks have perhaps stirred the most anxiety, with recent studies estimating that as many as 1.6 billion could have entered the oceans last year. Each one weighs only a few grams, but collectively they amount to between 4,700 and 6,200 tons. Like many plastics, these polypropylene garments could linger for as much as 500 years before fully breaking down into microplastics, which are themselves more or less eternal. In all its forms, plastic poses a threat to the health of marine animals, and its effect on human health remains poorly understood.
