March 25 Deadline to Pick Up All Face Masks Off the Ground Approaches, State Warns

Hawaii’s governor reminded residents and visitors on Tuesday of his demand to pick up all littered face masks on the islands, or the planned end of the 2-year-old emergency proclamation will be extended past March 25.

“Last week I said it’s getting ridiculous out there, and in the past week it seems to have gotten worse,” Ige said. “Face masks are littered all over the place, especially in parking lots and on the sides of roads. Who needs to buy a mask anymore when you can just walk a block and find a brand new one?”

The state has been on a historic emergency status since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The rules have changed so many times, who knows what’s actually legal or not now.

As cases of COVID-19, and especially the omicron variant, are in steep decline, the state plans to let the emergency proclamation expire as of March 25. Everyone who has difficulty breathing well in one, or who has a silly face mask tan line, will rejoice.

“It should be a super special day on March 26,” said Irene Malihini of the Maui Visitors Bureau. “I might just take a ride on a Maui Bus just to do it without a mask, or having the bus driver yell at me to pull it up over my nose.”

However nothing will change until the islands are completely free of all the mask litter.

Local community groups are busy picking up recklessly tossed face masks, and keeping a wait-and-see stance with the regulations.

“I remember when we met all the conditions of Tier 4, which was supposed to mean the end of restrictions,” said Larry Kuokoa of Kihei, president of the fledgling Free Maui group, organized to get the islands back to living normally after all the pandemic restrictions. “Of course then they announced Tier 5, which even the mayor of Maui had never heard of. So understandably, we’re skeptical. We’re acting like people in Missouri right now: Show me.”

Meanwhile, the Locals USA brand of slippahs announced it has hired a team of scientists to figure out how to recycle all the masks into the company's new Slippah Phone model.

In January, state and county officials reported that masks had surpassed cigarette butts as the most-littered item on Maui.

At the time, Kai Billingham, manager at an XYZ Store in Kihei, said they had noticed a drop in mask sales the first month of 2022 as masks became easily accessible on the ground. “Not only do they have enough at home or work, in a pinch they just have to look down.”