The Ocean Conservancy released a shocking report Tuesday that details the amount of pollution harming Oregon’s waterways from PPE that individuals use to combat the novel coronavirus.
Although the CDC recommended the use of PPE to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, the reported data reveals a brewing crisis as masks, gloves, face shield, and sanitary wipes create hazardous environments for sea-life and land-life.
According to the report, volunteers through the International Coastal Cleanup network collected 107,219 items of PPE from July to December 2020–although experts believe that number is "a vast undercount."
On the west coast alone, more than 5,000 pieces of PPE were reported by 13,000 volunteers in the last six months of 2020, according to the senior director of Ocean Conservancy’s Trash Free Seas Program Nicholas Mallos.
Volunteers recorded the data on the Conservancy’s Clean Swell app under the category ‘PPE,’ although these numbers don’t include the first six months of 2020 where data was being recorded under ‘personal hygiene.’
"Notably, the amount of personal hygiene litter recorded in the app between January and July 2020 was three times higher than what was recorded in that same time period for each of the previous three years," said Mallos in an email.
The Chief Executive Officer of Solve Oregon, Kris Carico, confirmed the vast increase in litter from PPE materials.
"We don’t have a number for what’s been found (in Oregon). We just know there’s been a huge uptick in the amount of PPE that we’re finding, whether it’s gloves or facemasks," she said in an interview. "It’s a lot, and it’s just not the beach, it’s everywhere. It’s throughout our cities, washed down our storm drains, and ends up on the beaches."
Carico announced that Oregon will be hosting a statewide spring cleanup on April 17, where volunteers will direct their focus to cleaning up six beaches as well as polluted areas on land.
"We like to focus on the beaches. We focus on our city parks, neighborhoods," said Carico. “It is neighbors getting out and helping neighbors.”
"I think it’s everybody’s responsibility to be picking up litter," she said. "We have a lot of Oregonians who love cleaning the beach, so we encourage people when they’re out to just bring a bag and grab some trash on the way."
This report comes shortly after researchers in the US and Denmark published an eye-opening study that indicated an “astounding 129 billion face masks are being used globally every month,”a number that works out to three million (masks) every minute.”
"Most are disposable face masks made from plastic microfibers," the researchers note.
It’s no shock that the use of three million masks globally per minute could cause significant harm to the environment, which is why researchers created a website to help bring awareness to the increasing pollution from masks.
The Ocean Conservancy suggested individuals, businesses and governments can help mitigate PPE pollution by tossing the PPE out in a tied trash bag.
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