Masks are essential yet require additional environmental consciousness
This is the opinion of Ryan Imm.
Jean-Pierre Alcaraz, science and health researcher and 34 others contributed to the article “Reuse of medical face masks in domestic and community settings without sacrificing safety: Ecological and economical lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic” published in the scientific journal Chemosphere.
The article explained a study designed to test the effectiveness of medical-grade masks after proper cleansing.
The findings of this study project a grim revival of the environment we once knew with statistics showing that during the beginning stages of the pandemic “the number of medical masks [discarded] is roughly estimated between 1 and 1.3 billion per month in Italy and UK, corresponding to 66,000 tonnes/year of waste.”
In combination with the passive and prolonged biodegradability of polypropylene, (which while increasing effectiveness of medical masks, takes hundreds of years to fully degrade) the arrival of a new variant has increased mask consumption, thereby increasing improper and excessive waste.
At first, to combat this issue, the use of cloth masks surged with hopes of reducing the amount of waste produced by this pandemic.
Yet as research has grown and developed, the scientific community has advised the use of medical masks over cloth ones because of the varying levels of effectiveness. It has been expressed that “…the level of protection [cloth masks offer] is at least 5 times less than medical masks, simply due to the structure and material used for manufacturing and the light-touch regulatory environment,” according to the article.
Although there may not be an environmentally friendly way to reduce the amount of waste produced by this pandemic, there are still some sustainable changes we can all make. First and foremost, wearing a mask significantly decreases the transmission of COVID and will hopefully lead us out of an unsustainable lifestyle, Therefore not wearing a mask will simply not cut it anymore. Even if it creates more waste, it is still a viable protectant.
More suggestions include cutting the ear loops before throwing away all masks, consciously putting your waste in a trash can rather than leaving masks on the ground and being aware of who is benefitting from your mask purchases (i.e. Jeff Bezos versus small business owners or local markets).
Though it may seem like we are in an environmental bind, our lack of control over this situation raises awareness of the issue and shifts the spotlight to other areas of sustainable development we may have forgotten about while in the pandemic. Technological advances in electricity have increased the drive and purchase of hybrid and electric vehicles and fertility rates worldwide have dropped to levels that align with more sustainable uses of natural resources and biodiversity.
Unsustainable changes to mask wearing may inevitably cause damages to our health, our society and our world, yet we must remember that there are other small changes we can make to combat the climate crisis amid a global pandemic.