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Determinants of COVID-19 Face Mask Litter in Coastal Urban Parking Lots: Implications for Source Modelling of Potential Microplastic Pollution
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This study surveyed COVID-19 mask litter in coastal urban parking lots to identify factors predicting accumulation and inform source modeling for potential microplastic pollution. The findings suggest that land use type and pedestrian density are key determinants of mask litter density.
Despite cities being recognized as being potential sources of microplastic pollution to the wider environment, most surveys of COVID-19 plastic-based litter have been undertaken through linear transects of marine beaches. For the far fewer number of studies conducted on inland and urban locations, the site-specific focus has primarily been surveys along the length of streets. The present study is the first to specifically assess the standing stock (i.e., moment-in-time) of littered face masks for the entire surface area of urban parking lots. The density of face masks in 50 parking lots in a Canadian coastal town (0.00054 m2 ± 0.00051 m2) was found to be significantly greater than the background level of littering of town streets. Face mask density was significantly related to visitation “usage” of parking lots as gauged by the areal size of the lots and of their onsite buildings, as well as the number of vehicles present. Neither parking lot typology nor estimates of inferred export (various measures of wind exposure) and entrapment (various metrics of obstruction) of face masks had a significant influence on the extent of whole-lot littering. In consequence, modelling of the potential input of mask-derived microplastics to the marine environment from coastal communities can use the areal density of face masks found here in association with the total surface area of lots for individual municipalities as determined through GIS analysis.
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Researchers monitored face mask litter on five tourist beaches along the Moroccan Mediterranean over five months, finding 321 masks (96% single-use) with higher densities on urban recreational beaches, identifying COVID-related masks as an emerging source of marine plastic pollution.
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A 250-km roadside walking survey provided the first landscape-scale estimate of COVID-19 face mask litter, finding that discarded mask densities were lower than feared in non-urban settings, suggesting that litter hotspots near congregating areas may not reflect the true background level of mask pollution.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.