Mass Production & Littering of Masks on NYC’s Environment

Samantha Fang, Klaire Geller, Shuhong Jiang, Rachel Berenshteyn, and Odinakhon Shamieva

During COVID-19 pandemic, mask-wearing has been encouraged and normalized as a necessary protective measure against the spread of the coronavirus. There are many different types of masks currently being used. These include cloth face masks, surgical masks, and filtering facepiece masks like the N95 respirator. Surgical masks consist of multilayers of non-woven, ​polypropylene plastic (PP)​. During mask manufacturing, plastic is melted and compressed into a web structure, in which strands bond through a cooling process. Multilayers of polypropylene plastic increase bacteria filtration efficiency (BFE), blocking particles that are bigger than one micron. Polypropylene plastic is a non-biodegradable material that poses potential threats to the environment as masks are massively produced and used throughout the city.

While an individual may use one to two masks per day, contaminated masks are unlikely to be recycled for safety reasons and therefore disposed of in household trash. In a worse scenario, used masks are improperly discarded on streets, parks, and beaches, where they cannot be reused as fuel by the waste sector. Although polypropylene plastics are nontoxic, they decompose very slowly into microplastics, which could be mistakenly consumed by land and marine animals. As important as personal health and safety, one should recognize the devastating impact mask waste could have on the environment.

This research topic is quite challenging to study experimentally. There is also limited data out there for us to analyze since the topic is so current. As a result, we decided to investigate this topic in the following ways: We read research articles and studies to gather statistics on mask production and disposal during the pandemic and the related environmental impacts, analyzed data around refuse tonnage and waste disposal in NYC, and distributed our own Google Forms survey to people we knew in the city.

Literature Review: Ocean Pollution

According to the BBC, an estimated 129 billion face masks and 65 billion plastic gloves are being used globally every month during this pandemic. With the increased use of disposable plastic masks and other PPE, there is a concern that masks that are littered on the streets can eventually be washed down the sewer grates and enter nearby oceans, lakes, and nature preserves, threatening the existing ecosystems and causing a surge in ocean pollution.

When plastic sits in the ocean, it becomes coated in algae, and masks are no exception. Marine mammals like dolphins and whales could ingest the algae-covered masks which cannot be digested and will kill them, and nearby birds may choke on masks they mistake for food. But these plastics pose a threat not only to the avian and marine life; they can find a way into our food chain. The algae will invite small fish to eat it and that, in turn, will invite larger fish and birds who prey on those fish. Plastics become microplastics as they degrade in the ocean, and those microplastics develop a toxic coating. The toxic particles are then eaten by fish and this can make its way up the food chain and eventually be eaten by humans, which would be detrimental to their health.

Literature Review: Mask Disposal Methods

Surgical masks are created to be used only for a couple of hours and not reused throughout the day, which is due to the risk of cross contaminating. In hospital settings, masks are considered to be medical waste that needs to go through a special way of disposal, specifically burning. Through burning masks, the contamination is being eliminated and reduces the chances of spreading the virus. However, the ashes that remain are being stored in landfills that are overflowing by the minute. Masks are also sold in plastic packaging to ensure that they are new and have not been exposed to infection, leading to additional plastic use. Production of GreenHouse Gases, such as CO2 and CH4, is released in significant amounts during plastic waste decomposition in landfills, or during the burning of plastics waste, resulting in air pollution.

Authorities have been concerned about the risk of COVID-19 spreading in recycling centers, thus prioritizing both incineration and landfilling. Such a reduction in waste recycling is divergent from the goals of circular economy and sustainable development, and even contributing to plastic waste pollution again. Reusable masks without filters had the general lowest contribution to climate change, when considering manufacturing, transport, and use. Conversely, single use masks and reusable masks with disposable filters had the highest contribution to climate change. The use of single use masks would aggravate climate change by 10 times than using reusable masks.

The pie chart consists of the sum of the Department of Sanitation’s Monthly Refuse Tonnage Data for each borough since the data began being collected. Over time, Brooklyn has disposed of the most refuse, while Staten Island disposed of the least. The map on the right is the change in tons of household waste collected between March 2019 and March 2020.

Household waste does not only consist of refuse (which includes trash and other non-recyclables), but the beginning of the pandemic as we know it in New York City saw a 5-10% increase in waste collection in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and most of the the Bronx, with most of Manhattan and some parts of the Bronx seeing a 5% decrease.

This has been attributed to wealthy “Upper East Side, Upper West Side and East Village [residents, just to name a few,]… departing those areas as coronavirus spread” for homes in the Hudson Valley or the Hamptons. In the aggregate, however, “city sanitation workers picked up more household trash [in March 2020] than they did the previous March.” This is not true of refuse specifically, the amount collected being less in March 2020 versus March 2019.

This visualization consists of refuse tonnage per month in New York City in 2018, 2019, and 2020 collected by the Department of Sanitation for their Monthly Reports for DSNY Curbside Collections. Data for the months of October, November, or December for each year are omitted as the data is not yet available for 2020.

Since May, the year 2020 has seen the largest amount of tons of refuse disposed of per day compared to 2018 and 2019. There was a sharp jump in refuse disposal between April 2020 and May 2020. Prior to April 2020, so between January 2020 and March 2020, refuse disposal was pretty consistent with what it had been in 2018 and 2019. However, April 2020, the height of COVID-19 in New York City, saw a marked decrease in refuse disposal compared to previous years.

It is difficult to make conclusions as to why May 2020 saw such an increase in refuse disposal compared to previous years. However, it is worth noting that Governor Cuomo mandated mask wearing in public beginning on April 15th, 2020. The Department of Sanitation divides waste into four main categories: organics, MGP, paper, and refuse. These categories are very broad. We had to assume that masks are refuse, as they cannot be recycled due to being potential biohazards.

Even with this in mind, refuse is a broad category and we cannot attribute the increase in refuse disposal to increased mask disposal. But this data is certainly interesting, because no matter what, refuse disposal has markedly increased compared to 2018 and 2019.

Survey: Key Findings In Three Parts

While there are limited conclusions we can draw from the results of our survey, this data still offers a broad overview and general idea of the mask usage and disposal among our group’s NYC network. In total, 48 people completed our survey. A vast majority of our sample resided in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens. Unfortunately we did not have representation from the Bronx.

100% of our sample believes littering in general is a serious issue. 97.9% of participants indicated that they have never discarded a mask on the street. 95.8% of participants believe there should be a safe method to dispose of masks in public.

Over half of our sample reported that they had used 25+ face masks since March. Notably, 23% of our sample reported they used 75+ face masks since March. In terms of the approximate amount of masks disposed of weekly, 94% of our sample indicated they disposed of up to 5 in a week.

Over 75% of our sample reported seeing between 2 and 5 masks whenever they go on walks around their neighborhood. Around 21% of our sample reported to see more than 5. 91.7% of participants indicated that surgical masks were being littered. Participants mentioned N95 respirators and reusable masks were being littered as well.

We also asked participants to evaluate the state of littering in their neighborhood since the beginning of the pandemic. Over half of our sample reported that the amount of litter in their neighborhood has increased since the pandemic. Among the other participants, some mentioned that although there has been less of the usual litter, they have noticed mask littering specifically has increased.

Some notable comments that we felt would be important to highlight: One participant mentioned a specific disposal method for their disposable masks which was to remove the straps before throwing them away. We also noticed that multiple participants have preferred the use of reusable cloth masks over disposable alternatives. Lastly, quite a few participants mentioned that they have rarely left their house since March and this impacts not only the amount of masks they report to have used and disposed of but also their observations on littering in their neighborhood.

We do want to note that it was challenging to examine survey results by borough because we have such inconsistent representation and insufficient data amongst our sample.

Our survey is a convenience sample and data was fully self-reported. Hence, results have to be interpreted with caution. We were unable to control for any variables, except for residence in NYC. Since our sample consists of mostly students, we also assume they will represent the more environmentally conscious portion of the population. This impacts their mask-use and mask-disposal habits as well as views on littering. Additionally, participants live in different boroughs, walk varying distances, and do not go outside at the same rate or time. Hence, we were unable to precisely analyze any data about littering per unit distance.

Because the coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented and has been going on for less than a year, there is limited data regarding mask littering. This is especially true for New York City, which was our primary area of investigation. Even before the pandemic, available Department of Sanitation data is not specific regarding the composition or definition of each broad waste category. It is therefore difficult to form conclusions about larger trends.

You can view our full project here.