Masking a Problem?

After initial reluctance (before it was generally recognised by governments that aerosol transmission is a major route for Covid-19 infections?), the wearing of face coverings is become mandatory for most people in enclosed spaces (like shops and on buses). Wearing a face mask must even be adopted when generally moving around the campus here, at Swansea University (and, I assume, other places). Of course, wearing the face covering simply makes it less likely that you will pass on the virus, if you have an infection. Non-medical face masks (of the kind the general public can easily buy) offer very limited protection to the wearer (although, if most people have a face covering in place, it reduces the number of potential sources of infection around all of us). One problem, however, is that it has been noted that discarded disposable face masks are becoming a plastics pollution problem ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54057799). Some people dispose of used face masks carefully but others just seem to drop them where they stand (e.g. outside the shop). This is very anti-social as other people are reluctant to handle them. Some groups are, very logically, encouraging people to switch to washable face coverings to reduce the plastic waste. I would only comment, however, that switchers a) must have a sufficient number of these items and b) should wash them at temperatures that ensure the complete destruction of the virus.