FOR awhile now, accounting clerk Vasugi Ramasamy has tried to ignore the sight of discarded masks littering the side of the road on the way to work every day.

But, annoyance soon gave way to action, forcing the Penang native to start her own personal gotong-royong to rid the streets of used masks.

For two Sundays now, Vasugi, 36, has made the rounds in Sg Bakap – the first time with her 19-year-old cousin, K. Suriya, and her husband, A. Moses, on her second trip.

Vasugi can only do this on Sundays as it is her only day off from her job at a supermarket.

She told The Malaysian Insight she was shocked at the number of used masks she saw being thrown away as the country battles the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I don’t understand why people are throwing used masks away just like that. We are supposed to protect ourselves with masks to avoid Covid-19 infection.

“Yet, people discard it indiscriminately without following proper procedure, posing a health hazard to others,” she said while on one of her rounds.

Vasugi said she had never participated in any community clean-up activity before this, but was driven to take this initiative on her own.

“I don’t understand why people don’t see this as a concern. It’s dangerous as the masks still carry the germs of people who have worn it.

“Imagine if a person who has Covid-19 used one and then threw it away, just like that.”

Vasugi takes about two to three hours looking for discarded masks every Sunday on a motorcycle around the area.

Despite drawing stares from strangers, Vasugi is determined to carry on.

“You can see how tough (the material) is. The discarded masks do not break down, even if they are torn.

“When not disposed of properly, the community here is making its own environment unattractive and dirty,” she said.

But despite her fervour, Vasugi said she had no intentions of starting a larger movement to collect discarded masks.

She said she preferred to work alone, although she does harbour some hope that others will be inspired to care more for the environment.

“I’ll post about my activity picking up the used masks. I’m happy enough to show it to my friends and others who know me so they can be more sensitive when it comes to littering.

“If someone had told me to pick it up, I wouldn’t do it. And, I don’t want to demand that others pick up used masks either.

“I’d rather just convey the message of what I do so that people can be inspired to do it themselves, even if it’s just in their own residential areas.”

Vasugi’s acts have since been featured in Tamil news and newspapers.

Disposable mask waste is a growing environmental concern as each piece reportedly takes 450 years to degrade.

Environmental protection group Ocean Conservancy said recently that an estimated 129 billion masks and 65 billion plastic gloves used as protection during the Covid-19 crisis are discarded every month, with a significant number of them ending up in oceans.

Single-use surgical masks, N95 masks and gloves are made from synthetic, non-biodegradable materials and take hundreds of years to break down naturally, the report said.

Malaysia’s Health Ministry has advised that used masked need to be folded, rolled and tied up with its own bands and thrown into a covered bin.

The ministry, which based its advice on World Health Organisation recommendations, also supports the use of reusable and washable masks. – August 30, 2020.