Nature lovers have urged people to cut the straps of the facemasks in half before throwing them away because these straps can cause serious problems for both birds and animals. They stated that the people needed to rip the strings off their one-time use facemasks so that if it was to end up as litter, the animals and birds would most likely not get tangled up in them, The News International writes.
“It is good to wear a facemask but these are the newest forms of litter that is bad for so many reasons. One of the worst is that the littered facemasks can seriously hurt birds and animals,” said Amir Hussain, a visitor at Trail V.
He said that the elastic straps can tighten around legs of the birds that can prevent them from flying, adding “These straps should be cut in half before disposing of a facemask after which there is a less of a chance it can get tangled around an animal or bird.”
The discarded facemasks are adding to litter and pollution besides hurting and killing wildlife across the world. Various organizations have started campaigns to make people aware of how to properly dispose of facemasks to protect bird and animal species.
According to Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering magazine around 129 billion face masks are thrown away every month around the world. Most of them are disposable products that cannot decompose for thousands of years. They easily break down into tiny plastic particles, which also harm nature and all living organisms.
