Surge in face masks and gloves littering Britain’s beaches

Conservationists worried marine wildlife will suffer from mountain of disposable PPE dumped into sea

Discarded PPE has been found on nearly a third of beaches trawled by volunteers during an annual clean-up.  

The Marine Conservation Society, which organised the Great British Beach Clean, said it was concerned at the volume of rubbish being generated by the coronavirus pandemic.

This year’s beach clean event, held in September, saw hundreds of volunteers take responsibility to clear a specific 100m stretch of a beach near them, in line with social distancing rules.  

Face masks and gloves were picked up on almost 30 per cent of the beaches cleaned during the campaign, with two-thirds of litter-picks inland organised in conjunction also finding leftover PPE.  

"The amount of PPE our volunteers found on beaches and inland this year is certainly of concern,” said the Great British Beach Clean co-ordinator Lizzie Prior.

"Considering mask-wearing was only made mandatory in shops in England in late July, little more than three months before the Great British Beach Clean, the sharp increase in PPE litter should be a word of warning for what could be a new form of litter polluting our beaches in the future."

Conservationists are concerned rubber gloves and disposable face masks, like other single use items, could endanger wildlife as well as pollute the seas.  

Fish and other marine animals could mistake gloves and masks for food, filling their stomachs with items which cannot be digested, or become ensnared in the straps of masks.  

In September, the RSPCA reported it had rescued over 900 animals since the start of the pandemic who had become caught in elastic straps from face masks which had been thrown away. 

The charity is urging people to “snip the straps” on their disposable masks before putting them in the bin.  

The most common items recorded by beach litter-pickers remains, however, pieces of plastic and polystyrene, followed by drinks caps, wet wipes and cigarette stubs.  

On average, 30 pieces of litter from drinks were found on every 100m of beach surveyed this year.  

The Marine Conservation Society said the government needed to introduce a bottle deposit scheme to incentivise recycling to cut down on this, following in Scotland’s lead.  

“Despite lockdown, with many of us spending more time at home, littering in public spaces has continued unabated,” said Laura Foster, head of clean seas at the charity.  

"Almost every single local litter-pick found at least one drinks container, which is incredibly concerning.

"An effective deposit return scheme would take the UK one step closer to a circular economy model and drastically reduce the volume of single-use pollution in the UK's streets, parks and on our beaches."