(Newser)
– The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the plague of plastic in the world’s oceans. Divers in the Philippines say that after returning to the coral reefs when a national blockade was lifted, they were dismayed to find more plastics in the sea than they have seen so far, including numerous surgical masks, BBC Professional reports says that in the first 10 minutes of a dive at a coral reef in Batangas, southeast of Manila, he collected at least a dozen reef masks, some of which were covered in algae and were clearly there for months.
Environmental groups warn that plastic in masks decomposes into microplastics, which are consumed by marine life. They urge the government to introduce stricter controls for the disposal of medical waste. Researchers say Manila alone produced an additional 280 tons of such waste per day during the pandemic. And the problem is global: last year, in the first months of the pandemic, militants in France said they were finding large quantities of personal protective equipment in the Mediterranean and warned that there could soon be “more masks than jellyfish”. guardian reports. They asked the public to adopt reusable masks instead of disposable ones. (Read more stories about face masks.)