Globally inevitable, locally manageable, and prevalent here on campus, the issue of mask waste is an ever present issue, but it is an issue that we can clean up.
Single-use plastic pollution has been a pressing threat to the environment ever since I can remember, but increasingly so since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when single-use PPE became essential. With the COVID-19 virus spreading globally, so too was the production, consumption, and disposal of masks. Mask pollution from 2020 is equal to 7 percent (roughly 5,500T) of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. With 7.7 billion people on the planet, that’s a lot of masks. ….
CSUMB has more than 7,500 students, most of them attending in person classes, that’s a lot of masks. How many times have you seen masks littered on the streets, on the beach, or on campus? With several schools, including here at Cal. State Monterey Bay, implementing mask mandates, masks are a sight we are all too familiar with.
In a survey I sent out to classmates, 25.6 percent of students reported seeing masks between each class, and 64.1% reported seeing them daily [Figure 1]. With nearly 90 percent of students seeing masks on campus everyday, they almost never pick them up to properly dispose of them. Understandably, masks are something that most people don’t feel comfortable picking up with their bare hands. Professor Tony Walker of Dalhousie University, states that PPE waste could potentially be contaminated with COVID-19 for up to three days (Beattie, 2020). So if we can’t (literally) pick up our mess, what else can we do to reduce the amount of mask waste on campus?
Figure 1: Survey results for how often masks are seen on campus.
SOLUTIONS
When asked about solutions that we can implement on campus to reduce the issue of mask waste, the most common ideas among respondents were: simply to roll back the mask requirement, and to add more trash/recycling receptacles around campus.
Just before spring break, CSUMB President Ochoa informed us that the mask requirement will remain through the duration of the Spring 2022 semester, so unfortunately eliminating the masks won’t be a possibility.
Additionally, several students complained that there are simply not enough trash cans on campus, and given that there are more masks than trash bins, these masks often drift throughout campus, rather than being properly disposed of. Adding more trash bins around campus, in central and high traffic areas, could provide further incentive for students to throw their masks away, reducing the amount of mask trash that we see on campus. However, even with more trash receptacles on campus, the problem is not just that students are littering, but that masks still can blow out of trash bins, across campus, and eventually can end up in the ocean.
Figure 2: Survey respondents report what kind of masks they wear on campus.
With CSUMB requiring and offering free KN95 masks on campus, it’s not surprising that 71.8 percent of respondents reported those being the main masks that they wear while at school [Figure 2]. While these masks are thicker and take longer in the process of breaking down, these masks are also more effective for longer amounts of time compared to the surgical disposable masks. The New York Times article, How to Reuse N95, KN95, and Other Disposable Masks, addresses this, and suggests that respirator masks can efficiently be worn several times before disposing of them. The CDC suggests a ‘brown paper bag’ method: placing masks into a brown paper bag after use and rotating with another mask throughout the week. In most cases, it is safe to reuse a KN95 mask up to five times before disposing. With nearly half (46.2 percent) of the respondents stating that they switch out their masks weekly, this is a method that students here at CSUMB are already using.
CSUMB has a surplus of KN95 masks provided for free, jammed into bins by the door of almost every room you walk into on campus. Perhaps if the University didn’t ‘over emphasize’ these, students would grab/use less of them, using only what they need.
Masks are something that won’t be going away anytime soon, and unfortunately with the protection these masks provide, comes the waste that they present. While we need to wear masks for our health and safety, there are safer ways of disposing of them. When throwing away your mask it is helpful to remove/cut the ear elastics, in an effort to reduce the risk of them getting caught or stuck on animals, both on land and in the ocean.
On a global scale, the issue of mask waste is overwhelming, but we are capable of making positive change here at Cal. State Monterey Bay.
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