LETTER: In a pandemic situation, the caring attitude of Malaysians is very much needed and essential for the wellbeing of others.
In the current situation, we can see that most Malaysians are doing their best to adhere to the new normal and norms, which can be regarded as indicators of the concern for each other.
However, we also need to have a sense of concern for the plight of nature. One of the negative effects of Covid-19 is the increase in medical waste.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has classified medical waste as waste from medical activities. Fifteen per cent of this waste is classified as hazardous that may be infectious, toxic or containing radioactive substances. Used face masks are one of the medical waste that has the potential to spread the disease if not managed properly.
Wearing a face mask in public areas has been mandatory from Aug 1 and this has caused a spike in the use of face masks. Dr Theng Lee Chong, an expert in waste management, says roughly 10 million disposable face masks are used in Malaysia daily. The number increases when the government mandates its use.
People have the option to use reusable fabric face masks.
However, surgical face masks have better filtration efficiency and are thus more effective in protecting users from Covid-19.
Therefore, we will continue to depend on surgical face masks.
Unfortunately, surgical face masks are partly made of a plastic material known as polypropylene. It takes about 450 years for the surgical face mask to decompose and it will remain in the environment for a long time.
Gary Stokes, director of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) called OceanAsia — focusing on research and data collection on plastic waste — produced a short video showing some of the used face masks he collected along the coast of Soko Island, Hong Kong.
Stokes collected around 70 used face masks within 100m along the beach, a clear evidence that used face masks will end up in the ocean if carelessly dumped. In the end, the environment will be affected.
An article entitled "More Masks than Jellyfish", published by an online magazine called The Guardian, reports some of the activities of a French NGO named Opèration Mer Propre's sea and beach cleaning activities along the coast of Cote d'Azur.
During the operation, a lot of used face masks, gloves and hand sanitiser bottles were found on the ocean floor.
The NGO has started attracting the attention of many to this problem since the end of May. In France alone, the authorities ordered about two billion disposable face masks. Used face mask pollution is very worrying because we are also facing plastic pollution.
According to the UN Environmental Programme 2018 report, 13 million tonnes of plastic waste had ended up in the ocean. Caring about others is a basic human instinct. In Islam, caring for others is considered as one of the branches of iman (faith). In a hadith, Rasulullah SAW mentioned about the branches of faith and one of them is the removal of harm from the street (hadith narrated by Bukhari and Muslim).
A person can only do such a noble act if he or she is concerned about others. Concern for nature is also indispensable.
AZRINA SOBIAN
Fellow, Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (IKIM)
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times