Nearly 26,000 Tons of Pandemic-Related Plastic Waste Pollutes the Ocean: Study

Face masks gathered by Israeli volunteers taking part in a mass beach cleanup during a one-day operation launched by some 20 Israeli associations to "beat the world record" for beach cleaning, on the shore of the city of Netanya on Oct. 30, 2020. Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images

Some 25,900 tons of pandemic-related plastic now pollute the ocean, with the majority stemming from hospital and medical waste, a study has found.

The study, published in the online journal PNAS on Monday, found that since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic until Aug. 23 this year, approximately 8.4 million tons of plastic waste had been generated from 193 countries, with about 25.9 thousand tons released into the global ocean.