‘Discarded masks harm environment’
I AGREE with the concerns expressed by Councillor Candi Chetwynd about parents not wearing masks when they collect their children from school ( Sentinel, October 7).
As with so many other things, Government messaging on this issue has been muddled, leaving both schools and parents unsure just what the right thing to do might be.
There is, though, another problem with masks and schools that needs to be addressed, that of the number of masks, many of them single use ones, being discarded on the pavement.
I live around the corner from a large high school and every day walk past masks that have been dropped on the pavement.
Some of them are reusable ones that must have cost several pounds to buy.
But it would be wrong to just blame young people going to and from school for creating this new litter problem. When I go into town, shopping discarded masks are dotted about the pavements there too.
There are two problems here. The first relates to the health risks posed by masks that have not been disposed of properly, and not just the obvious ones relating to Covid-19.
If I was a council refuse collector, I would be decidedly nervous about picking up discarded face masks due to the range of unpleasant diseases I might catch.
There is also the small matter of disposable masks adding to the environmental problems caused by our addiction to single use plastics.
Introducing a charge for
plastic bags had a significant impact on this. It would be tragic were those gains to be lost now.
As we all try to control an impending second wave of the virus, while also trying to regain something close to normality, masks are a useful weapon in our arsenal.
It would be truly sad if something that is protecting our health should at the same time put that of the planet at risk.
ADAM COLCLOUGH PENKHULL