Study: Oceans polluted with over 25,000 tons of COVID-related plastic waste

Nov. 09, 2021

Tens of thousands of pounds of pandemic-related materials like plastic masks, gloves and face shields have been discarded into the ocean since the beginning of the pandemic, according to a report published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

As cases of COVID-19 began to rise in 2020, so too did the need for personal protection equipment (PPE), much of which was made from single-use plastics.

According to researchers from Nanjing University and University of California San Diego, approximately 8 million tons of pandemic-related plastics have been generated since the start of the pandemic — around 25,000 tons of which are now in the global ocean.

https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs...e-oceans-study