Litter piles up amid pandemic around D.C. region

A plastic mask crumpled along a shoreline. Latex gloves discarded on a sidewalk. Takeout boxes and cups scattered among trees at a park.

Litter has been piling up during COVID-19, environmentalists and public works officials in the D.C. region say.

“Across the board, our communities have certainly experienced an increase in litter during the pandemic. That was due in large part to restrictions on gatherings that initially eliminated or limited cleanup events which rely on volunteer groups,” said Katie Cullipher, principal environmental education planner for askHRgreen.org, which arranges cleanup efforts in Virginia’s Hampton Roads area.

“Without the manpower to facilitate local cleanups, we saw the impacts of litter increase and our localities saw an increase in reports of littered areas that needed attention. Some cities have contractors to help with litter pickups, but many rely heavily on volunteers,” she said.

Sarah Sterzing, education and program manager with Keep Norfolk Beautiful, said the organization relies heavily on the military, university groups and others to help with cleanup but many were in a “stand down mode” for much of last year.

She said the nonprofit turned to other groups and found alternative ways to organize cleanup efforts. Since March, they have collected more than 26,000 pounds of trash, almost triple the amount from two years ago, “a real comparison” since last year the lockdown began in March, Ms. Sterzing said.

She said people going to parks and using disposables and single-use plastic is way up, at least anecdotally.

 What’s more, a new source of trash has emerged: personal protective equipment (PPE).

According to the D.C. Department of Public Works, neighborhood litter has become more obvious due to the pause on street sweeping, the misuse of public litter cans and changed individual behaviors during the public health emergency. Recipients of Department of Energy and Environment grants also have reported discovering PPE in their trash capture devices along the Anacostia River.

Cigarette butts and single-use disposables such as plastic bags and takeout containers have “always been heavily in the mix,” but now a lot of PPE is showing up as well, Ms. Cullipher said. “You didn’t often find masks and gloves during litter pickups pre-COVID, but it’s rare not to find those items now.”

About 45% of litter caused by discarded masks and 68% by discarded Latex gloves have been found along waterways, according to a 2020 litter report by Keep America Beautiful.

There was a “slight uptick” in litter from 2019 to 2020 although several years prior saw a steady decline, the national nonprofit said last week in a report that includes “visible litter” surveys at more than 600 randomly selected sites across the country.

Keep America Beautiful estimated that about 207 million pieces of PPE could be found on America’s roads and along its waterways at the time of the study, comparable to the number of plastic straws. However, PPE made up a relatively small percentage of overall litter, about 0.4%, the report says.

About 26 billion pieces of litter were found along 11 million miles of U.S. waterways and nearly 24 billion along 8 million miles of American roadways in 2020, the report says. The tallies equate to 152 pieces of litter for each U.S. resident and more than 2,000 pieces of litter per mile.

The pandemic also has altered the dynamics of litter, some experts say.

“The generation of waste has shifted more to the home and away from businesses and workplaces. There has also been an increase in at-home deliveries, food take out rather than dine in, and related behaviors as people adjusted lifestyles to the pandemic,” said Joe Giudice, chairman of the American Public Works Association’s solid waste management committee.

“Has the amount of litter increased? It is very difficult to know, as so many of us have a hand in cleaning up litter,” Mr. Giudice said. “It is true, however, that the single use PPE and disinfection products are more prevalent than before the pandemic, but other forms of litter may be less with fewer people shopping at retail outlets, attending large events, and driving on the roads.”

He added that there also has been an increase in homelessness, particularly in urban areas, which causes challenges with encampments and litter cleanup — a trend that started before the pandemic.

The Environmental Protection Agency said it has not specifically studied the potential impacts of the improper disposal of personal protective equipment. “As with other litter, this debris could harm physical habitats, transport chemical pollutants, threaten aquatic life, and interfere with our use of river, marine and coastal environments,” the EPA said.

Ms. Cullipher of askHRgreen.org said any litter, especially in the water-surrounded Hampton Roads, could end up in waterways. Rain pushes what’s on the ground into storm drains that lead directly to local waterways.

“We see masks washing up on the shore and creating a particular danger to local wildlife,” she said.

D.C. Public Works said that if animals consume litter, it could cause severe injury or death and negatively affect their reproduction rates.

A cat who ate a glove in Philadelphia, a checkered puffer fish who got entangled in a mask and a dog who swallowed a face covering in Boston were just some of the images and posts a team of scientists in the Netherlands found when scouring the internet. The scientists reported their findings in late March in the journal Animal Biology.

As for COVID-related waste, the EPA said disinfectant wipes, masks, gloves and other PPE should be tossed in a closed bag and thrown into a covered trash can, if possible. PPE should not be placed in a recycling bin and should go in the trash so it does not end up in the environment after use.

Some localities lend litter kits to provide volunteers with gloves, vests, trash bags and litter grabbers to participate in cleanups, Ms. Cullipher said. Businesses can regularly monitor outdoor areas to remove litter and install trash and recycling receptacles in heavily trafficked areas.

Meanwhile, the public can make sure to throw trash where it belongs, keep a bag in their cars to collect trash until it can be thrown away and pick up litter when they see it, Ms. Cullipher said, adding that smokers could carry a portable ashtray.