{"id":400662,"date":"2021-04-08T16:28:30","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T20:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=400662"},"modified":"2021-04-08T16:28:32","modified_gmt":"2021-04-08T20:28:32","slug":"discarded-masks-are-trashing-the-worlds-oceans-and-beaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/discarded-masks-are-trashing-the-worlds-oceans-and-beaches\/","title":{"rendered":"Discarded Masks Are Trashing The World\u2019s Oceans And Beaches"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdiscarded-masks-are-trashing-the-worlds-oceans-and-beaches%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=400662&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-966.jpeg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>A new report revealed that used masks and other items that have been worn in order to protect one\u2019s self during the COVID-19 pandemic have started to affect conservation and the environment of beaches around the world.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, New Jersey\u2019s Clean Ocean Action environmental group released its yearly <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cleanoceanaction.org\/fileadmin\/editor_group2\/Beach_Sweeps\/BeachSweepsReport2020-FINAL-LoRz.pdf\">report<\/a> about its \u201cBeach Sweeps,\u201d revealing that 2020 displayed a new kind of litter problem: personal protective equipment.<\/p>\n<p>In 2020, the group added PPE to their data card in the fall after the spring sweep was cancelled due to the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>The group discussed the increase in PPE in its report, saying:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"11\">\n<p><em>Amidst the global COVID-19 public health crisis, the world is facing an environmental health risk caused by littering of personal protective equipment (PPE). NJ towns and municipalities are witnessing increased dumping and littering of used masks and disposable gloves. All litter eventually finds its way to the ocean and will end-up as marine debris. As a result, COA added PPE to the Fall 2020 Data Card. In total 1,113 pieces of PPE were collected at the Fall 2020 Beach Sweeps.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/discarded-masks-litter-beaches-worldwide-threaten-sea-life-3d9e892ea922a6bf954159525c0b8d93\">The Associated Press<\/a> reported that in the later half of 2020, over 107,000 pieces of PPE were picked up by volunteers all over the world, according to the Ocean Conservancy group. The members of the group reportedly believe that the true number for the year is much higher.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-186 Component-p-0-2-168\">\u201cUsed correctly PPE saves lives; disposed of incorrectly it kills marine life,\u201d said Cindy Zipf, Clean Ocean Action\u2019s executive director. \u201cPPE litter is a gross result of the pandemic, and 100% avoidable. Use PPE properly, then dispose of it properly in a trash can. It\u2019s not hard and it\u2019s the least we can do for this marvel of a planet we all live on, not to mention ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-186 Component-p-0-2-168\">Nicholas Mallos is the senior director of the Ocean Conservancy\u2019s Trash Free Seas program. He said, \u201cOnce 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 \u2026 In fact, a recent study found that a single disposable mask can shed up to 173,000 microfibers \u2014 tiny plastic fibers \u2014 in a single day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-186 Component-p-0-2-168\">\u201cWhat this means is that the damage is cumulative, adding up over time to the massive amount of plastics already entering our ocean each year,\u201d he said. \u201cPPE 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"Component-dfp-0-2-172\" readability=\"23.821782178218\">\n<p>The Associated Press reported that Northern California has seen an uptick in thrown-out PPE items on beaches in and nearby the city of Pacifica, as seen by the Pacific Beach Coalition, and a \u201cclean-up day in San Diego netted 413 latex gloves and more than 700 single-use surgical masks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The issue has started to become a problem around the globe, as well. In Scotland, such items were discovered on almost 25% of the beaches that the Marine Conservation Society cleaned last fall. Masks were found on beaches in Hong Kong as early as March of last year when the pandemic was beginning to take hold.<\/p>\n<p><i><span>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/span><\/i> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><span><i>member<\/i><\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new report revealed that used masks and other items that have been worn in order to protect one\u2019s self during the COVID-19 pandemic have started to affect conservation and &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1888308,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-400662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1888308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}