Coronavirus litter floods Miami Beach

Environmental organisations want people to stop throwing gloves and masks on the ground

SHOWS: MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES (APRIL 28, 2020) (ECO.CODES/ CLEAN THIS BEACH UP - MUST ON SCREEN COURTESY ECO.CODES/CLEAN THIS BEACH UP/ MUST NOT OBSCURE CAPTIONS) (MUTE) 1.

VARIOUS OF PICKING UP DISPOSABLE GLOVES FROM STREET 2.

PUTTING LITTER INTO PLASTIC BAG 3.

MARIA ALGARRA FROM 'CLEAN THIS BEACH UP' AND HER COLLEAGUE FROM 'ECO.CODES' THROWING LITTER OUT MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES (APRIL 5, 2020) (ORIGINALLY RECORDED IN PORTRAIT FORMAT) (CLEAN THIS BEACH UP - MUST ON SCREEN COURTESY CLEAN THIS BEACH UP/ MUST NOT OBSCURE CAPTIONS) 4.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) MARIA ALGARRA, FOUNDER OF 'CLEAN THIS BEACH UP', SAYING: "So I'm about to go for a walk and see how many gloves I can pick up.

I have my pickers, my gloves and two trash bags so let's see what we can collect in a couple of blocks in South Beach." 5.

VARIOUS OF MARIA ALGARRA PICKING UP DISPOSABLE GLOVES FROM STREET (MUTE) 6.

MARIA ALGARRA PRESENTING PLASTIC BAG WITH DISPOSABLE GLOVES (MUTE) 7.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) MARIA ALGARRA, FOUNDER OF 'CLEAN THIS BEACH UP', SAYING: "In only five blocks, pretty scary, it's a whole bag so let's see." 8.

TIMELAPSE OF MARIA ALGARRA COUNTING DISPOSABLE GLOVES, CAPTION (ENGLISH) READING: '#THEGLOVECHALLENGE''/ CAPTION (ENGLISH) READING: "52 GLOVES"/ CAPTIONS (ENGLISH) READING: '#THEGLOVECHALLENGE.

@CLEANTHISBEACHUP/ ALGARRA SHOWING THUMB DOWN (MUTE) STORY: A founder of 'Clean This Beach Up' Maria Algarra joined forces with 'Eco Codes' to clean disposable gloves and masks from the streets of Miami Beach, Florida, in the United States.

"Plastic pollution poses a huge threat to our wildlife and ecosystems, and this new wave of plastic pollution brought by COVID is only adding to the problem.

Latex and Nitrile gloves are not recyclable or biodegradable, and they will most likely end up in our waterways when improperly disposed of." Algarra told Reuters.

The organisation launched "The Glove Challenge" on March 23 as a way of educating people about the importance of proper disposal of their PPE (personal protective equipment) and other trash.

The social media challenge started as "If you see a glove snap a shot", yet a lot of volunteers have been picking them up.

Algarra highlights the importance of wearing proper PPE if picking up any form of litter.

'Clean This Beach Up' is an environmental organisation fighting plastic pollution in Florida through weekly beach clean-ups.

'Eco Codes' has been working closely and supporting the efforts of Algarra's organisation.

The highly contagious novel coronavirus that has exploded into a global pandemic can remain viable and infectious in droplets in the air for hours and on surfaces up to days, according to a study by scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

(Production: Pola Grzanka)