How Cornwall's beaches are becoming polluted with PPE
Over 250 face masks have been found on Cornwall's beaches over the past few months
There is a warning that Cornwall's beaches and coastline are becoming polluted with face masks and plastic gloves.
Emily Stevenson is a marine biologist and runs the organisation Beach Guardian in north Cornwall, which works to clean litter off our beaches.
She says the since the start of the pandemic our coast has become blighted by PPE and warns that it is having a devastating impact on wildlife and the enviroment.
Over 250 face masks have been found along a stretch of coastline in north Cornwall over the past few months.
Since the start of lockdown, almost 1,000 plastic gloves has been found too.
"I think the biggest problem with it is just the sheer quantity of PPE which is being used, and we're seeing the impact of that on our coastlines, on our streets, down here in Cornwall.
"We only started noticing face masks from the beginning of July onwards, so as soon as it was mandatory to wear these in public places, in supermarkets, they were everywhere in the environment.
"Plastic gloves are a different story, as we've been finding those since before Covid-19.
Emily Stevenson, Beach Guardian
Watch Emily show Pirate FM's Sarah Yeoman how much PPE has been washing up on our beaches...
Emily is warning that PPE is a 'new and emerging pollutant' which is a real problem.
She says a WWF report found that if just 1% of global PPE is disposed of incorrectly that's 10 million face masks entering the environment every single month.
"I think many people aren't aware, or don't necessarily realise, that this is just another form of plastic pollution. And they bring with them the very same consequences that we're well acquainted with now with plastics, the entanglement, the ingestion.
"We've already seen evidence of seabirds getting entangled in face coverings. so those elastic straps are very hazardous, they're a huge risk to wildlife as it's very easy to get entangled in that type of thing."
Emily Stevenson, Beach Guardian
In terms of tackling the problem. Emily is calling on people to make sure face masks are disposed of correctly, with general waste.
Given their light weight they can easily blow away and into the environment, where there is a risk of it entering the marine system, putting more wildlife at risk.