Credit: Habib Dadkhah, Unsplash.com

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Why disposable masks should be taken off store shelves

Sep 2, 2020 | 4:47 AM

KAMLOOPS — WALMART IS DOING IT. As of yesterday, so is WestJet. Effective in a couple of weeks, Starbucks will be doing it, too.

More and more, the wearing of masks is becoming a requirement for shopping, transportation and patronizing service providers — almost anywhere we have to be close to others.

In fact, the issue of whether masks should be mandatory is taking care of itself. Though there’s still no universal legislated requirement, they’re becoming a necessity for community life.

While some Kamloops businesses continue to run into belligerent customers who would rather walk out in a huff than don a mask, they’re gradually becoming the norm.

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And why not? They’re cheap. You can buy a box of 50 disposable masks in the drug store for a price that amounts to a few pennies each.

And therein is a problem. Maybe you’ve noticed an occasional mask discarded in the gutter or in a parking lot. It’s not quite a major littering problem here at home but it’s becoming one in many places around the world.

They’re even starting to show up in our oceans, according to environmentalists, and could eventually rival discarded plastics as a major source of global pollution. They’re even becoming a hazard for wild birds, who become entangled in them much as they used to get trapped in those plastic six-pack rings before we wised up.

Why is it that we regard anything that’s “disposable” as something we should feel free to toss on the ground or flush down the drain?

The problem is only going to get worse, especially as masks become either mandatory by law or through the places we daily frequent, but there’s a way to avoid it. Stores should quit selling disposable masks to the general public and businesses should stop handing them out to customers who don’t bring their own re-usables.

There’s no shortage of suppliers of re-usable, washable masks. Let’s use them.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.