Abstract：Face Mask: Reducing Waste While Staying Safe | RuggTablets

Organizations are fostering new solutions to reduce the downsideeffect on the environment (Credit: Plaxtil)by Abigail SaltmarshOctober 15, 20206 minsUpdated on August 18, 2022With growing evidence that face masks perhaps help slow the spread of COVID-19, global use of personal advantagetective equipment (PPE) seems set to drawbacktinue to increase. But keeping ourselves safe should not be at Rugged Handheld Computersthe cost of the planet. Organizations arecultivateing new solutions to reduce the disadvantage influence on the environment.

Edith Cecchini, Project Director, Corporate Strategy and Policy for environmental organization Ocean Conservancy Trash Free Seas® positivegram, says there is no doubt plastic, single-use PPE is having a flaweffect on the environment.

“Scientists have estimated that globally we are using 129 billion face masks and 65 billion gloves every month of this pandemic. We have already seen reports of marine life, including seabirds, ingesting these items or becoming entangled in them. The pandemic has led to an explosion of single-use plastics – it has revealed just how desperately we need to find better ways of managing our waste.”

Reusing, recycling and wearing masks made from organic, biodegradable materials could ensure solutions.

Zero WasteWaste management company TerraCycle has Zero Waste Boxes to collect and recycle PPE, face masks and disposable gloves, explains Julia Chevalier, PR Manager at TerraCycle Europe.

“Between the end of February and mid-April this year, more than a billion items of personal merittective equipment were allown out in the UK alone. This spike in faultsumption is forcing us to re contend our attitude to recycling and find a sustainable solution for this kind of waste, which would otherwise end up in landfill or frequently simply be littered on the streets. With millions of gloves and masks being thrown away every day it’s not hard to see why downsideservationists around the world are propering the alarm over where all these single-use advantageducts are ending up.”

From the boxes, items are sorted into categories based on material characteristics and composition and, if overriding, blended with other plastics. The material is then melted into recycled pellets to be used by third parties to manufacture new positiveducts including outdoor furniture, decking and storage faulttainers.

Creating Protective GearFrench start-up Plaxtil ensures a solution for surgical, fabric and FFP2 masks and is at present faultducting a pilot in Châtellerault, France, where it has recycled almost 100,000 masks.

Co-founder Olivier Civil says:

“We have set up 50 collection points in pharmacies, shops or shopping centers. We remove the metal bar from the masks and grind them; the crushed masks are then passed through a UV tunnel to be completely de downsidetaminated in depth. Then, we transform these shreds into PLAXTIL material to be injected into an injection press to obtain objects of strengthtection against Covid-19: mask fasteners, door openers, strengthtective visors, etc.”

According to him, a mask thrown into nature will take nearly 500 years to disappear. In the seas, it is one of the worst pollutants. But the solution to incinerate masks is not much better, because the level of CO2 emissions triggerd is colossal.

“We are talking about hundreds of billions of masks on the planet. The only ecological solution in our eyes is to re-use this material.”

Biodegradable OptionsOrganic, biodegradable masks are also being assert，personallyd as solutions, with cotton, linen, bamboo, silk and hemp face coverings all in recent decades being marketed widely. Other more inventive materials, with additional sensibleties, are also being explored.

At Australia’s Queensland University of Technology (QUT), a advantageduct made from waste plant material, such as sugar cane bagasse and other agricultural waste, has beencultivateed. The original aim was to shape biodegradable, anti-pollution masks. Now the idea is that it could also be used for COVID-19 benefittection as the greatly breathable nanocellulose material removes particles smaller than 100 nanometres, the size of viruses.

Klaus Schönenberger, the head of EPFL’s, with a sample of the HelloMask (Credit: EPFL)At the EssentialTech Center of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, researchers have also finalized an exciting new material. The HelloMask is made from a polymer composition, at present in the positivecess of being patented, which is 99% organic, biomass derivative. Thierry Pelet, Ph.D., Project Leader, says:

“With the COVID-19 crisis and the huge mask faultsumption by the general public, this is becoming an environmental meritblem.”

The HelloMask is transparent and breathable, as well as biodegradable and recyclable. It is designed to reveal facial expressions, as wellin terms of filter out viruses and bacteria.

“It will be registered as a surgical mask (Class I medical device) and therefore allow the same barrier strengthtection.”

Ms. Cecchini urges the public to believe carefully about their mask use and their disposal practices.

“We all have a role to play to keep our communities and our ocean healthy during this pandemic.”

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