Environment Secretary joins our Mask Force campaign for a beach clean to protect marine life

LOCAL Tamsin Floyd has been doing regular beach cleans in her sleepy village of Porthtowan in Cornwall since 2015.

Of the hundreds of bags of litter she and her daughters Ruby 13, Eloise 11 and Florence, 6 have collected, only in the last 16 months have masks become an issue.

"I’ve definitely noticed mask litter since the pandemic," says Tamsin.

"On the beaches and commonly in car parks and shopping areas. They tend to be the disposable types, along with latex gloves as well."

Environment secretary George Eustice who joined Tamsin and other local volunteers for the beach clean during the G7 summit says The Sun’s Mask Force campaign – encouraging disposable mask recycling at 488 Morrison’s stores across the country – is invaluable.

"I do at least a couple of beach cleans every year and often go out with the Marine Conservation Society. A lot of the things that they're seeing now are pandemic related litter; masks and the like that are harming our marine environments.

"As a nation we are rightly proud of our beautiful beaches and green spaces. That is why it is so distressing to see individuals chucking plastic bottles and food wrappers across some of our favourite beauty spots."

Litter has soared over the pandemic with masks and plastic gloves being washed up

Mr Eustice, who uses washable reusable masks at DEFRA, says a summer of staycationing and changes in behaviour since the pandemic are causing problems for our seas.

"More people are using our coasts and beaches which is great but we know from volunteer beach cleans more masks are ending up in our seas which is why I fully support The Sun’s Mask Force campaign to recycle masks into PPE equipment.

"Fewer people are using reusable cups now than they were pre pandemic and we know at the height of lockdown litter picks couldn’t happen and people were fearful of picking litter that might be contaminated.