Many of us didn’t realize that during this whole pandemic, used masks would be a danger to us and cause damage to the environment.

At the same time no one knew where this would take us, just like face masks being thrown out the window and ending up in the ocean. Even though they are seen on the floor, people still leave them and do not even bother to pick them up. I think this has been something horrible because it adds to the littering and it adds to our pollution problem that exists and just makes it worse. It’s not mentioned too much on the news, but it’s something that everyone should take more seriously.

According to a CNN article “Conservationists warn Covid waste may result in ‘more masks than jellyfish’ in the sea,” there appears to be discarded masks and gloves in numerous amounts in the ocean. Now maks and gloves could become a new pollution problem to our marine life, causing animals to become extinct faster.

I think that reusable masks and washing hands more frequently should be done instead of wearing disposable masks and latex gloves, and not thinking about where it will end up at the end of the day or once people have used them. At some point, everyone was talking about removing plastic straws and bags because it was causing serious damage to turtles and other animals, but now it has been made worse with face masks and gloves ending up in our oceans and being attached to an animal’s body. I think that we should all think about the causes that masks are doing to our environment and make sure that we all use reusable face masks.

In my opinion, I think that this whole pandemic has caused lots of damage and should be taken seriously. Instead of wearing gloves out to public places, people should wash their hands more often and use hand sanitizer. Everyone should think about making our environment cleaner and ways that we could make it better.