Every day, there is an increased demand for disposable face masks and gloves to stop the spread of COVID-19. The coronavirus has completely disrupted the operations of the world. It has reached a point where most individuals can’t go to work, and children especially can’t go to their schools. Just like the virus is affecting humans, however, it’s also affecting the ocean and all that lives in it.

Pollution is a major contributing factor that threatens marine life, even decades before the virus, but now it seems to be affected even more. Considering what we already know about pollution and the various ways it affects the ocean, the mere idea of mass-manufactured face masks and gloves just makes it obvious that again something extra will be added to the oceans. Plastic pollution is currently threatening the health of all marine life globally.

How Acting Fast Costs the Earth

It’s no lie that the last thing on the world’s mind is saving the Earth from pollution. Countries’ only concern worldwide is to ensure their people are safe, the virus doesn’t spread, and their economies don’t collapse. Since mass manufacturing on-demand is the only resort the world had at this moment in time, face masks and surgical gloves weren’t designed biodegradable. These products instead are made from non-woven plastic fabrics like polypropylene.

When plastic, like polypropylene, enters the ocean, it breaks down into small pieces, called microplastics, which gets ingested by all sorts of marine species, which wreaks ultimate havoc on marine ecosystems. As a result of ingesting plastic, there are over 600 different wildlife species threatened by plastic pollution. Given that fish gets eaten by over a billion people globally, it’s also considered quite dangerous for them.

Currently, at least 8 million tons of plastic enter the oceans annually, which makes up 80% of all marine debris in the ocean. With the influx of plastic manufacturing for masks and gloves, a larger percentage of marine mammals are likely to die as a result of it.

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