Since the very first lockdowns of 2020, those plastic-based face coverings have also been an water pollution disaster inside the making.

SIngle-use masks were the mascots of the pandemic, lockdown generation. And now the masks are one of the biggest water pollution issues of our time.

Since the very first lockdowns of 2020, those plastic-based face coverings have also been an environmental disaster in the making. With the now discredited public health authorities saying that people needed to stem the tide of the pandemic with mask use - single use plastic based masking turned into a panacea. However, now we are faced with an onslaught of plastic, heavy metal and micro plastic water pollution.

Face masks waste can now be observed everywhere as massive river, ocean and lake pollution. 

For the first 2 years of the pandemic alone, the global population thew away over 129 billion face masks every month, or roughly 3 million masks in every minute. This is a conservative estimate - the numbers can be higher.

Discarded face masks have seeped into each nook of our lives, from city sidewalks to solemn niches of parklands, forests, streams, rivers, lakes and ocean beaches. Single-use masks have washed up on the shorelines of Hong Kong's Soko Islands and have smothered sea life off the coast of western Europe.

Scientists and environmental advocates expressed alarm about this tsunami of waste, from the beginning of the ill advised lockdowns and over the top pandemic response. Environmental activists foresaw the dire ecological ramifications of the monumental waste of single use face masks  — especially once the masks made their inevitable way into our earth's waterways. 

Masks pose entanglement dangers for turtles, birds, and other animals. Fish could devour the plastic-fiber ribbons that unfurl from a discarded mask. Then, there is the untold threat to human fitness that would happen, on the microscopic level, once masks and plastics begin to dissolve into micro plastics, get into our food supply, our drinking water, and our bodies.

According to John Hocevar, The Greenpeace USA, Oceans Campaign Director. ...

“The plastics industry saw covid as an opportunity," 

The plastics industry worked tirelessly to lobby politicians and the general public that reusable masks are dirty and dangerous, and that single-use plastic masks are necessary to keep us secure. The plastics industry was lying for profit. And now, we have a self-inflicted environmental disaster on our hands.

Dr. Sarper Sarp, a Chemical Engineering professor at Swansea University in Wales, led a contamination study that examined nine face masks. After submerging the masks in H2O, for a short period, permitting them to take a soak. After the soak, Sarp and his team discovered micro- and nano plastic particles released from each one. Effectively, the masks combined with H2O and created a toxic soup.

The toxic soup had nanoparticles of silicon, heavy metals like lead, cadmium, copper, and arsenic.

According to Dr. Sarper Sarp ...

"The toxic soup from the study can potentially disrupt entire marine food chains and contaminate the world’s drinking water."

Nanoparticles — of plastic, silicon, or other materials — are so tiny in size that they could breach cell walls and harm DNA, affecting each human and nonhuman existence-forms on the cellular stage. 

A Crisis Of Unintended Outcomes ...

As the demand for face masks surged, so did the production of single-use disposable masks. Unfortunately, many of these masks end up in our rivers, lakes, and oceans, posing a significant threat to aquatic life and ecosystems. The materials used in these masks, such as polypropylene, take hundreds of years to decompose, leading to long-term pollution in our waterways.

Moreover, the improper disposal of face masks exacerbates the problem. Many people simply toss their used masks on the ground or in the trash, where they can easily be carried by wind or rain into storm drains and eventually make their way into bodies of water. Once in the water, these masks can entangle marine animals, causing harm and even death.

The impact of pandemic face masks on water pollution is not to be underestimated. Studies have shown that an estimated 1.56 billion face masks entered the oceans in 2020 alone, further adding to the already dire state of marine pollution. The presence of these masks not only harms marine life but also contaminates the water with harmful chemicals and microplastics, posing a threat to human health as well.

This is why environmental activists are sounding the alarm on face mask pollution.