"Covid garbage": How to reduce contamination by the use of mask?

From this Monday, July 19, all the communes of the Metropolitan Region passed to phase 3 of preparation, which translates into the somewhat massive use of open common spaces, such as squares and parks.

Without a doubt, it is good news from the perspective of mental health, but it might not be for the environment, because there is the possibility of more "covid garbage".

What is "Covid"?These are the waste generated by the disposable masks, which have a useful life of only four hours.

The call of the Minister of the Environment

For this reason, the Minister of the Environment, Carolina Schmidt, called to use reusable masks.

“The use of reusable masks is something we have to do to generate less‘ covid garbage ’in free areas and parks.These masks that are double and well made are protective.In the closed areas, masks that have the highest level of coverage are better, ”explained the Minister of the Environment.

To the above Schmidt added that, "the call is to take care of the appropriate masks at the right times".

"The plastic is not recycled, because it takes more than 450 years to eliminate and in addition to that it is contaminated," he said.

Recommendations to avoid pollution caused by masks

The masks are made of tiny polypropylene fibers, a material that does not degrade and that can accumulate in marine or terrestrial media, causing serious damage to both animals and human beings.

Only last year 52 billion masks were manufactured, according to the OCEAANSASIA NGOplastic.

It is for these reasons that Susana Mayer, director of the Risk Prevention and Environmental Engineering career of the UDLA, Viña del Mar Headquarters, stated that “we know that this has a significant impact, especially today that we are going to a phaseWhere we are going to go out to the streets ".

“We can have in our bags or backpacks as much as possible a bag to deposit this mask and there to dispose of it in the corresponding receptacle.Do not throw it on the street for any reason, because for that we have the bag.Then when we get home we can deposit it in the garbage jar, ”recommended the expert.

A weight pollution of 27 blue whales

In Chile there are no official figures on how many disposable masks are used, but there are estimates.A surgical mask has a useful life of 4 hours and if each person used two disposable masks, more than 30 million masks per day would be used in the country.Thus, in a month a total of more than one billion a day would be reached and if a mask weighs 4 grams, in a month plastics equivalent to the weight of 27 blue whales would be discarded.