How do we dispose of masks

I started wearing a surgical mask while boarding the LRT and KTM today to reach home from TARC.

Seeing that this is Friday and that tomorrow is a holiday, I expected that there is a huge crowd and I was right.

While wearing the mask I felt uncomfortable not because I cannot breathe in but because the air that I'm exhaling is drying up my mouth.

I can even smell my breath every time I exhale which is not something pleasant as there are a lot of microorganisms in a person's mouth.

It was then, when I thought of how do we dispose the masks as there are no proper disposal sites for this in Malaysia which is easily accessible.

My due concern was because the virus can survive for quite a long time outside of a host cell. Thus, the health warning of washing your hands frequently and avoid touching your face.

If the mask that were thrown away in a simplistic manner, I wonder whether it could cause another person to get infected if the mask does contain the virus especially the garbage collectors.

As I'm lazy to search for that, I found a link of what the HK government has done to curb the spread of SARS a few years ago which can still be used today.


http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/health_promote_protect/oldsars/mask.htm#disposal