Orange County beaches are continuing to experience a “frustrating” amount of litter, with some waste brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, environmental advocates say. During a study of the impact of the pandemic on beaches, the Southern California Surfrider Foundation found personal protective equipment (PPE) to be amongst common waste. “The COVID-19 pandemic led to an almost 63 percent decrease in the number of overall items collected during [beach] cleanups,” Surfrider reported. “This past year personal protective equipment made up 1.84 percent of all items collected. While it may not seem like much, that is about the same percentage that plastic straws made up in the previous year and they were the tenth most commonly collected item.” Rick Erkeneff, vice chairman of the South Orange County Surfrider Foundation, said cleanup crews are finding more masks and plastic sand toys on top of the usual high amount of cigarette butts. “It’s really frustrating because it’s plastic that’s going to be …