Impact of the Irregular Disposal of Masks and the Perception of the Community of the Federal Institute of Sergipe, Campus Aracaju/SE

In early 2020, the first case of COVID-19 was detected in Brazil. The pandemic continued to advanced, which led to the adoption of the use of masks in commercial establishments, parks, workplaces, public transport, as a protective measure. This situation generated another concern, the impact generated by irregular disposal. In view of the above this study aims to perform a survey of the impacts caused by the irregular disposal of masks and verify the perception of the academic community (students, teachers and administrative technicians) of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Sergipe, Aracaju Campus. A questionnaire was elaborated to be applied to the academic community where we sought to identify the perception of the interviewees about the use of masks, and the impact that their irregular disposal can cause. These data were tabulated, and graphs were generated.  The results show that: masks are efficient in combating the proliferation of COVID-19 and irregular disposal has numerous impacts. It is concluded that most interviewees do not properly sanitize the masks, are aware of the impacts generated by incorrect disposal, but do not perform the correct disposal.