The country’s largest community-based environmental event, Clean Up Australia Day, has launched a nationwide “Citizen Science project”, to measure the extent of Australia’s face mask litter.
The World Health Organisation estimates that more than three billion single-use masks were thrown out across the globe every day in 2020. However, locally, the extent of this problem remains unclear.
EPA Victoria’s Chief Environmental Scientist, Professor Mark Patrick Taylor, says discarded face masks have gone from a largely unknown litter problem to being seen in streets, parks and public places everywhere.
“It’s difficult to know just how many are polluting our streets, drains, waterways and beaches, but they are now a widespread problem and, with their plastic content, they are not just going to decay and go away,” he says.
Concerningly, plastics in disposable masks can take up to 450 years to break down and researchers have warned that littered single-use masks could be releasing chemical pollutants and nano-plastics into the environment. Over the past two years there have been disturbing cases of seabirds and wildlife found tangled up in carelessly discarded single-use face masks.
“It’s critical that we rid the environment of discarded face masks by taking part in Clean Up Australia Day and reporting mask litter wherever we find it,” Professor Taylor says.
Unmasking the problem
Clean Up Australia Day volunteers will unmask the impact of the problem by tallying the number of face masks collected and removed from the environment.
Pip Kiernan, Chair of Clean Up Australia, says it’s not too late to get involved in the event, which takes place Sunday, 6 March.
“Registering for Clean Up Australia Day is the best way to show you care. Join us to take practical action and help unmask Australia’s litter problems,” she says.
Signing up online means volunteers are covered by the event’s public liability insurance and able to participate in the Citizen Science project by recording the number of masks they collect in a national database.
“At this late stage – we can’t guarantee your free Clean Up kit will arrive in time for Sunday, but we’re strongly encouraging people to sign up – and, if necessary, simply grab gardening gloves and a rubbish bag to join in on the day,” Ms Kiernan says.
Environmentally-friendly masks
Ms Kiernan is also calling on manufacturers to ensure the next generation of PPE equipment is designed to not only be safe, but have the lowest environmental footprint possible.
“Urgency is required to be more creative in the design of these products with the environment right up there in our thinking,” she says.
“This concept of product stewardship – when we design a product and consider what happens to it at the end of its life – needs to be addressed at the outset. We need innovation in the design of PPE so that it’s as safe as it can be but kinder on the environment.”
