It was already a big problem before the Covid-19 pandemic, but plastic waste is now turning into an even larger issue – and face masks, in particular, are not helping the cause. We need them to avoid the spread of the virus but at the same time, there’s no official guidance on how to dispose of them. Most of them just end in the trash, and that needs to change. Image credit: Flickr / Dronepicr An impressive number of face masks are used around the world, with studies estimating 129 billion are used every month. That’s good — we’re preventing a dangerous virus from spreading. But it comes at a cost. Most are made from plastic microfibers and are not properly disposed of, which means they’ll be staying in the environment for centuries to come.