Concerns about disposable masks littering the environment and creating hazards for marine life and birds has promoted Clean Up Australia (CUA) to launch a citizen science project.
As part of its popular Clean Up Australia Day on March 6, the organisation's volunteers will be asked to count all masks removed from streets, beaches, walking trails, parks and reserves across the country where they have become a common sight during the COVID pandemic.
"They're everywhere and they absolutely don't belong in the environment," CUA chairperson Pip Kiernan told ABC Radio Adelaide.
"We've lived through extraordinary times with COVID-19 but it hasn't been kind on the environment.
"The number of single-use items has surged and many of these have ended up as litter."
Ms Kiernan said the "citizen science project" was being launched because, while plastic waste levels had increased during the pandemic, there was no data to confirm the number of face masks in the environment.
She said disposable face masks were particularly dangerous for birds and marine life, which could become entangled in the mask's rubber straps.
"And there was some research that came out of the UK last year showing that once masks get wet, they're likely to be leaching pollutants into the water, so it's really important that we pick them up."
Leaching pollutants
Researchers from Swansea University in May reported that disposable masks included high levels of potentially harmful pollutants within their silicon-based and plastic fibres, including lead, antimony and copper.
It found a variety of masks, including standard disposable varieties as well as novelty and festive masks, released micro and nano particles into the water, as well as heavy metals.
The University's College of Engineering found the particles detached "easily" from the masks and leached into the water "with no agitation" which suggested the particles were "mechanically unstable and readily available to be detached".
Also last year, a University of Portsmouth study utilising data collected by citizens found there was a near 9,000 per cent jump in face mask litter across the world during 2020, due mostly to mask mandates.
New technology required
Ms Kiernan said disposable masks took an estimated 450 years to break down in the environment.
She said manufacturers needed to "urgently" reconsider the design of its next generation of personal protective equipment to be both safe, but also "kinder on the environment".
Ms Kiernan said people who registered to volunteer on Clean Up Australia Day would be issued with a kit to pick up waste safely, including gloves and bags.
"I pick them up with my bare hands wherever I go, and it is a bit of a gross concept doing it without gloves, but the great thing Clean Up Australia Day does, is that once you register your site, we send all the materials you need free of charge."
