While masks and other protective items have been vital in the fight against COVID-19, they can have an incredibly detrimental impact on the environment. According to some estimates, humans globally use and dispose of an estimated 129 billion face masks and 65 billion plastic gloves every month.
Inevitably, some of those items will end up in our oceans, where they can wreak havoc on the marine ecosystem. And according to a recent report by conservation organization OceansAsia, the number of face masks that made it into the planet’s oceans this year may be as high as 1.5 billion.
Source: Greenmatters.com
Source: OceanAsia.org
