DISCARDED PPE LITTERS BEACHES

 

DISCARDED PPE LITTER

"In the second half of 2020, more than 107,000 items of PPE were collected by volunteers around the world according to the Ocean Conservancy group — a figure its members believe is a vast undercount of the year’s true totals.
It reported last month that 94 per cent of its cleanup events found discarded PPE, with masks accounting for 80 per cent of the total."

The masks are made of materials that will not break down easily; by some estimates it could take 450 years for one to decompose in the environment.

Conservationists have reported sea birds becoming entangled in the ear straps of face masks, and they worry that marine life could eat masks or gloves, mistaking it for food, and suffer serious or fatal consequences.

Why do so many people  treat Mother Earth like a giant garbage can,  thereby, causing the death of millions of marine animals every single year? As well,  discarded  germ/virus saturated masks can easily endanger the lives of pets and kids. 

We already have fines  for littering , maybe it’s time we instituted bigger fines and force litterbugs to spend the summer picking up litter! 

If you feel strongly about this the email of our  Minister of the Environment is Jonathan.Wilkinson@parl.go.ca  


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