“Once in the environment, disposable PPE act like any other single-use plastic, likely never breaking down but rather breaking up into smaller and smaller pieces and persisting indefinitely,” said Nicholas Mallos, senior director of the Ocean Conservancy’s Trash Free Seas programme. “In fact, a recent study found that a single disposable mask can shed up to 173,000 microfibers – tiny plastic fibres – in a single day. “What this means is that the damage is cumulative, adding up over time to the massive amount of plastics already entering our ocean each year,” he said. “PPE has been vital in protecting human health, but the resulting pollution has also exposed that our waste systems are not equipped to handle crises like this.”

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