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| A single-use mask floats in a puddle in front of the Colosseum in Rome. AP-Yonhap |
By Ko Dong-hwan
Littered single-use masks that have significantly increased in number in Korea are raising concerns of possible secondary spread of COVID-19 that still persists worldwide. The once hard-to-get items are now a nuisance.
After the coronavirus cluster infections picked up speed in March, trashed face masks began to be seen in outdoor spaces like streets, parks and public washrooms. As infection cases in the country do not seem to be dwindling, with confirmed patients having passed 12,400 as of Monday, fears of secondary infection via the masks are increasing.
On June 14, two activists from the Korea Federation for Environmental Movements (KFEM), with a reporter from Korean TV broadcaster KBS, searched for littered masks on busy streets in Seoul's Youngdeumgpo District. The joint search team picked up 27 masks after one hour.
Littered masks, which the Ministry of Environment's recycling guideline advises should not be recycled but discarded for incineration, were literally everywhere at random places across the country's public outdoors. Trash cleaners said they often found masks left on benches, bus stops, parking lots or stairs where there are usually many passers-by, according to KBS and other news reports.
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| Activists from the Korea Federation for Environmental Movements and a KBS reporter collected 27 masks from the streets of Youngdeungpo District in Seoul on June 14. Courtesy of Korea Federation for Environmental Movements |
The KBS news footage even showed one littered mask among a flock of pigeons nibbling on the street, raising questions about whether birds might carry any substance from such a mask that could have been worn by an infected patient.
Some masks were found inside enclosed public washrooms, left next to taps. These masks are more hazardous than those found in open-air spaces because of the isolated air space. Cleaners said they wore gloves to pick them up ― instead of using tongs, making the cleaners more vulnerable to infection.
Littered masks blown by the wind on to streets also provoke concern about the virus being spread through the air.
The estimated number of discarded single-use masks is roughly 20 million a day in Korea. According to a survey by OhmyNews, 52 out of 92 respondents in their 20s said they have been using a new mask each day, leading to an estimate of up to 26.8 million masks being trashed every day.
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| Oceans Asia co-founder Gary Stokes shows littered masks that he found on the beach of the Soko Islands in Hong Kong in February this year. Screen capture from Oceans Asia |
The sheer figures suggest a good proportion are not being disposed of properly. KFEM released statistics from June that single-use masks were a new category among common litter nationwide and accounted for 2.1 percent of the total, following cigarette butts with 53 percent, plastic bags and vinyl wraps with 16 percent, and single-use paper cups with 5.4 percent.
Chosun Ilbo reported in February that some Koreans deliberately threw away used single-use masks before returning home because they "feel reluctant to bring them home." That resulted in more littered masks in places like apartment complexes where residents likely threw away the masks before entering.
Masks that were not properly thrown in government-designated plastic trash bags for incineration but recycled also had to be hand-picked by cleaners, increasing workloads for the workers who are often the most vulnerable to infection from the littered masks.
Coronaviruses can live for several hours or even days while clinging to the masks, according to the Korea Medical Institute's infectious disease expert. The institute's tests have revealed that bacteria left on a single-use mask's surface remained intact for at least 48 hours.
Littered masks are a global issue, like at the Soko Islands in Hong Kong where discarded surgical masks' non-woven materials, which contain plastic components of polypropylene, pose a lethal threat to marine diversity. Environmental activist groups like Oceans Asia and Plastic Free Sea have advocated against the irresponsible plastic wastes and littered masks.
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