And now I am fuming.

[Workingman]

I was reading an article about a seagull trapped in a discarded face mask and that led to other links.

It now looks as though "Covid waste" is the new environmental disaster. Millions of items of PPE are being found on the seabed and lakes and rivers as well as the open countryside. Face masks, gloves, aprons, wet wipes and sanitiser dispensers / sachets are all in the mix!

How and why FCOL?

Not only are most of them NOT biodegradable but they could also be carrying the virus and passing it on to other animals thus creating more avenues for zoonotic transfer - that's where it can be passed from host to new host and lead to more deadly mutations.

How bl**dy difficult is it to take the stuff home to put it in the black bin waste and then wash your hands while singing two verses of Happy Birthday?

[Kaz]

Really boils my ****, with apologies for the language, but it really does! I just mentioned in the daily thread seeing these disposable masks discarded - the last one I saw was inches from a refuse bin

[Ally]

There is NO excuse for dropping litter. Of any kind.

[Workingman]

NO, there absolutely isn't!

Tens of billions of these things have been made just for this pandemic, and we are going to go on making billions more even when it is over, whenever that might be! These are on top of the already billions produced and used daily world wide before the pandemic.

Imagine what it will be like if only one tenth of one percent of these things are just dumped on the ground to be blown God knows where .... it is already happening!

[meriad]

It makes my blood boil as well - as Ally says; litter of any kind isn't acceptable, but this type of litter even less acceptable for every reason you mention Frank.

People really are just too bl**dy stupid and lazy, they really are!!!!

[JoM]

I’ve walked to town and back this morning and there were discarded masks on the floor by a few of the bus stops I passed, which is annoying anyway but even more so when there are bins just a few feet away

[Kaz]

[Workingman]

And some poor sod in basic PPE has to pick up and bag these things knowing God knows what they are carrying, then the bags have to be binned by others who then go home.... and all their kit should then be decontaminated and made safe. I give up!

[JoM]

And some poor sod in basic PPE has to pick up and bag these things knowing God knows what they are carrying, then the bags have to be binned by others who then go home.... and all their kit should then be decontaminated and made safe. I give up!

Yep

I tell you what else has annoyed me. I saw a pack of disposable masks in Aldi and thought it might be useful to have a pack just to have by us...and then I saw ‘Made in China’
Sod that! They’ve inflicted this on the world and now they’re making money out of it.