Dispose of rubbish properly to protect our nature.

Demand for personal protective equipment, safety screens, and single-use plastic products, such as takeout containers, plastic bags, and packaging has skyrocketed during the Covid-19 pandemic. The increased use of plastic has had negative consequences for our city’s cleanliness and generated litter on our streets, and roadsides, as well as in our rivers, canal and public spaces.

Face masks are littering our streets.

It is vital that we consider the effects on other forms of life and take forward plans to dispose of plastics properly to protect our nature. This rise in the use of single-use plastic, including face masks, is slowly destroying our planet and our wildlife in the process. Disposable face masks can be mistaken for jellyfish, the main food source for turtles and other ocean animals. There is an emerging threat to animals through entrapment, entanglement, ingestion of PPE and its inclusion as nesting material by birds.