'I find them everywhere': Stouffville resident says mask litter is becoming a big problem

Yorkregion.com
April 21, 2021

Nobody has a better understanding of the amount of litter around town in Stouffville than Roger Davidson. For the past four years, Davidson has been walking around town with his dog Bosco picking up garbage.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought on new litter problem: masks. “I picked up 14 this morning,” Davidson said. “It’s certainly far worse now than it was a year ago. I find them everywhere.”

He believes he’s picked up more than 5,000 masks since the pandemic began. Davidson would like to believe that a lot of the mask litter is from them falling off or people dropping them without noticing, but there are a lot of times when he knows that isn’t the case.

“I picked up four or five that were wrapped up into a ball and tied into a knot,” he said of a recent walk.

The spot where Davidson has noticed the most mask litter in town is the field next to the Smart Centre plaza on Hoover Park. “It’s where people are shopping,” he said.

Davidson started doing his daily walks after he went in for a routine physical and his doctor told him he was experiencing arrhythmia. When he told his doctor he was walking 5,000 steps a day, he was told that was nowhere near enough. He bought a Fitbit and started tracking his steps, shooting for well beyond 10,000 steps a day.

Davidson collects a lot more than just masks during his walks. He’s always on the hunt for plastics, dog poop bags and cigarette butts. “They are quite probably the most littered item in the world. They are small enough that people don’t feel any guilt about throwing cigarette butts away,” he said.

Another problem that has escalated during the pandemic is people leaving their dog poop bags on trails or hanging in a tree. “We have an awful lot of new pet owners that don’t seem to know the etiquette of what to do with a dog poop bag,” he said.

An increase in litter has been reported by York Region, according to Laura McDowell, director, environmental promotion and protection for environmental services.

Crews staffed by the cities and towns are currently focused on spring cleanup, which includes street sweeping, debris cleanup and flushing road islands and curbs to prevent pollutants from entering water systems.

"Together with our local cities and towns, works to promote positive environmental practices and to help raise awareness for the need to reduce waste and to recycle, compost or dispose of items responsibly, specifically single-use plastics," McDowell said.

Litter consisting of PPE -- masks and gloves -- has also been noticed around the region, specifically in park grounds and business plazas.

Morgan Jones, director of operations within the community and fire services commission for Markham, reminds residents to properly discard their PPE by taking it home with them and putting it in the garbage.

"If you think about a mask, it looks like paper, so people think that could go into the blue bin, and that actually contaminates the whole blue box," Jones said.

To address blue box contamination, the region's SM4RT Living Plan -- recently updated in 2020 -- includes a voluntary "ask first" program to reduce single-use items.

York Region continues to see increased personal protective equipment like masks, gloves and wipes being littered and mistakenly placed in the blue box. When you place items like masks, gloves and wipes in the blue box, they are physically removed by a front-line worker from the recycling system because they aren’t accepted. They are also more likely to become litter by blowing away on the curb.

In the case where residents want to participate in a Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks cleanup, they can refer to this guide, files.ontario.ca/mecp-litter-cleanup-guide-en-2020-10-16.pdf, which, for example, advises you to wear PPE and maintain social distancing.