Victorians, including those living in Hume and Whittlesea, have been asked to be the eyes and ears of a scientific program created to rid the streets of discarded face masks, the state’s Environmental Protection Agency’s chief environmental scientist has announced.
The tool to gathering the scientific data is an EPA Victoria website.
The initiative is an extension of EPA’s pollution hotline where members of the public can already report all types of pollution, including littering by calling 1300 EPA VIC (1300 372 842) or providing details online at epa.vic.gov.au/report-pollution/reporting-pollution
“Discarded face masks have gone from a largely unknown litter item to being left behind everywhere,” Professor Mark Patrick Taylor said.
“It’s difficult to quantify just how many used masks are messing up the streets, storm drains, water ways and beaches of Victoria, but they are everywhere,
“As EPA’s Chief Environmental Scientist, I’m looking to Victorians in every town and suburb to help us identify the mask litter hotspots so EPA and other agencies can design and better target clean up and mitigation efforts to stop the mask pollution,” he said.
EPA will share data collected from the survey to inform local councils of areas where there is a build up in litter, allowing for improved programs to tackle the problem.
Details: epa.vic.gov.au/mask-away
