A study that conducted by the University of Portsmouth and published in the journal Nature Sustainability found that facemask litter has increased by 9,000 percent in the first seven months of the pandemic, from March 2020 to October 2020.1 2 The findings show that facemasks are creating plastic pollution, which could last hundred of years and potentially increase the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the COVID-19 infection. Read more.