EEEK!!! can you start a new post sharing that. I’m sure that I’m not the only one who hasn’t been told.
Or be careful to enclose them in a bag to make sure they make it to the landfill.
Well, that can also be a problem, as crows and gulls will easily tear open bags at landfills to get at the garbage.
After wearing properly on your face who else reuses the disposable face mask to shine your shoes or rub out a grease stain? I have and recently I used it to dab the rivulets of perspiration running down my head as I stood under a tropical sun wearing a blazer.
Then of course it’s disposed of in a waste receptacle.
If I see mask litter sometimes Ill pick it up and dispose of it.
WhAts your pro tip?
I use an unused surgical mask to wipe off the haze on the inside of my windshield. It works better than any other cloth.
I leave a few use ones in my car to wipe down my windshield wiper blades to remove those stupid little hemlock needles that get trapped on the blades and when dragged across the windshield cause rain and wiper fluid to leave lines.
This sounds seriously unhygienic, unless you wear some kind of gloves when you handle waste masks that you find laying around.
Sounds like it to me too.
But then I wouldn’t shine my shoes or windshield with a used mask either. Theoretically it’s coated with dubious nasties coming and going.
Which is why I said that I use an unused surgical mask to wipe off the haze on the inside of my windshield. But thinking about it, I don’t wear my mask in my car, so my exhaled germs are already coating every possible surface in there.
My mistake. I confused your inner windshield with the other person’s grease stain. Sorry.
Wow! I really hate that hazy glass too. Never notice it til I turn into the sun. Some century I’ll remember to take Windex and some paper towels out to the car with me. Don’t bet your house on it though.
Try a surgical mask! 
Did someone above mention using masks to shine shoes? Try using those sheer women’s nylon stockings. They are ideal for polishing shoes – just the right degree of abrasiveness for buffing shoes. (Why anyone would want to wear fabric sandpaper on any part of their body is a mystery to me.)
Yes I have picked up a mask by the string bare handed. You say there are Cooties in the grocery store parking lot? oh noes should I also be concerned about my what may be clinging to my shoes? Oh dear break out the haz mat!
I’ve taken to washing my hands every time i enter my house. Then i don’t have to worry much about what i might have touched when I’m out. Wash hands, remove mask, wash hands again for good measure.
At first i was worried my hands would chap, but i haven’t had any problems.
My knuckles get raw and cracked, but I live in the land of -100% humidity.
PSA: Always cut the ear loops before disposing of masks. Small animals and birds are getting their heads stuck in the loops with predictably bad results for the critter.
I get white pine needles and sap bombshells! Also condensation and or ice in winter on 1/2 the car side facing east. Cat prints birdshit yeah I park outside year round.
I came across this photo today:
Probably not life threatening but not a good image, either.
Yeah I’ve been seeing a lot of surgical masks and plastic gloves underwater when I go diving. Fewer straws than before, though, so that’s something. But yes please cut the loops and try to get them IN the trash.
A friend’s band cleans “their” stretch of highway four times a year. They only found a few masks last year, the masks have exploded this year. She really hates them because the ear loops get stuck on everything.