SOURCE:
By JOHN BOWDEN - April 21, 2020
Discarded masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) are posing a growing environmental hazard, according to some experts.
A Louisiana State University microplastics expert told CNN that he is working on a survey gathering responses from colleagues around the world to document how expansive the problem of litter involving PPE has become amid the coronavirus outbreak, which has forced many to don such equipment to go out in public.
"Preliminary data from these survey responses shows that gloves are the most common PPE waste," Mark Benfield said. "In the U.S., masks are difficult for the public to get. So gloves are most commonly found PPE waste on the street. In China, masks are freely available. So you see more masks discarded."
An official with Citizens Campaign for the Environment, an advocacy group, concurred in a statement to CNN, calling it a growing hazard.
"The PPE is intended to help us fight a public health challenge, not create a plastic pollution problem," Adrienne Esposito told CNN.
One official with a solid waste management company told CNN that many Americans are improperly disposing of masks and gloves in recycling, which cannot be done due to the risk of contamination.
"We're doing it more often than we have to," Paul Zambrotta of Mr. T Carting said of sorting through recycling. "We have to take out possibly contaminated PPE which wasn't even supposed to be in there."