Litter pickers in Basildon are seeing a huge rise in the number of used disposable face masks during their patrols.

The number of single use masks in Basildon has reached 141,730 per day, data from Trade Waste has revealed.

It's been calculated that 19.5 billion disposable face masks will be used across the UK in 2021.

Many face masks end up being blown into the woods and making their way into streams, rivers and eventually the sea.

Charlotte Green from Basildon Waste Company said: "The scale of the problem of carelessly dumped disposable face masks is massive – residents of Basildon use 141,730 single use plastic masks a day and sadly some of these are being dropped, or simply fall from people’s pockets – sightings are increasingly common now."

With no easy way to recycle disposable face masks, the problem is said to be littering caused by careless users.

Charlotte is encouraging everyone to move towards washable reusable masks to avoid "sleepwalking into another nightmare".

She added: “Used masks are tricky and you should not touch a used mask – they should be treated like any other potentially contaminated material and only handled professionally using the right protecting equipment.

"The way to tackle this potential environmental disaster is for everyone to move towards washable reusable masks, not only will this cut down on single use mask litter, but it also reduces the environmental impacts of manufacturing 19.5 billion plastic masks in the first place. As a country we have worked so hard to reduce plastic consumption, yet we are sleepwalking into another nightmare."