OCRegister.com: Masks aren’t only reason pandemic is adding to coastal trash. A new study documents COVID-19’s role in increasing plastic pollution on beaches and in the ocean. Disposable masks, gloves and wipes are helping suppress the spread of COVID-19, but they’re adding significantly to plastic litter that’s trashing our shores and ocean, according to a study from the Ocean Conservancy released Tuesday, March 30. Coastal pollution has been further worsened by the pandemic-driven increase in take-out food and the subsequent littering of single-use plastic containers. And even as more trash reaches the beach, the pandemic also has meant fewer volunteers for beach cleanups. The report, based on data collected worldwide in the last half of 2020, documented 107,219 items of personal protective equipment gathered by the conservancy’s cleanup partners. On Sept. 19, California’s Coastal Cleanup Day, more than 6,000 masks and gloves were collected by some 13,000 volunteers, according to state organizers. Turnout was down dramatically, from the 75,000 people who volunteered to pick up beach litter in 2019.
The Guardian: Trapped in gloves, tangled in masks: Covid PPE killing animals, report finds. Mask and gloves protect people but harm animals from penguins to dogs when discarded, researchers say. The researchers searched news sites and social media posts from litter collectors, birdwatchers, wildlife rescue centres, and veterinarians and found incidents on land and in water across the world. But they said much more information is needed and have launched a website where anyone can submit a report. The study, published in the journal Animal Biology, is the first overview of cases of entanglement, entrapping and ingestion of Covid-19 litter by animals. The PPE litter was mainly single-use latex gloves and single-use masks, consisting of rubber strings and mostly polypropylene fabric.