What Will Happen To The Millions Of Discarded Face Masks?
Spain, the Netherlands and France announced this week that it will not be necessary to wear protective face masks while outdoors. As the summer temperatures start to rise this is great news for people who struggle to breathe while wearing the masks. However, it is not such great news for the environment as thousands of tons of discarded and unused masks have started to appear floating in the rivers and the seas across Europe. -- ADVERTISEMENT --    Over a year into the global COVID-19 pandemic and the scale of waste from single-use personal protective equipment (PPE) is slowly being tallied as masks, gloves and face shields fill bodies of water and landfills. One of the major contributors for PPE waste is hospitals, where strict health, safety and sanitation protocols mean doctors, nurses, techs and most support staff change PPE frequently, but there is solution- one U.K. company is tackling the issue head-on. Based out of Cardiff in Wales, the Thermal Compaction Group (TCG) utilizes massive microwave-like machines that melt and compress used or faulty face masks, gowns and curtains  which are made of polypropylene  at 350 C to produce one metre rectangular blocks. The blocks of polypropylene can then be re-engineered into items like chairs, garbage bins and bottle caps. While hospitals are the biggest users of polypropylene, the TCG website states its machines are compatible for use in the shipping, construction and military industries. We melt the masks, we melt the plastic and it forms the blocks you see, said TCGs environmental director Matthew Rapson in an interview with CTV News. TCG offers four different kinds of thermal compaction machines dubbed Sterimelt, Massmelt, Styromelt and Curtainmelt which handle several different materials and turns them into recyclable blocks. We can turn them into picture frames, coat hangers, electrical fence post  anything where the core material is plastic said Thomas Davison-Sebry, director of TCG. The pandemic has really highlighted the need for face masks, but also created a massive amount of waste.  So far, five hospitals in the U.K.s National Health Service (NHS) have a TCG machine on site, and the company estimates that their Sterimelt machine, which they have configured to include face masks, reduces the volume of single-use wraps and drapes by up to 85 per cent. Everybody thinks that plastic is the problem, but its not. Plastic is a great product and the infrastructure needs to be there to recover and reuse it, said Rapson. Polypropylene products can take decades to decompose in landfills, and many countries  the U.S. and Canada included  do not handle all of their recycling and waste domestically, instead of shipping tonnes of waste overseas. We shouldnt have these waste mountains blowing up all over the world, Davison-Sebry said, adding that he hopes TCGs technology will make its way into peoples homes as filament for 3D printers. Theyll make their own cups, their own cutlery, just by printing from their plastic waste.  A 2020 report by Hong Kong-based marine conservation group OceansAsia estimated that more than 1.56 billion face masks used last year are making their way into the worlds oceans. A March 2021 study by the University of Southern Denmark found the scale of waste is even higher  their analysis estimated that 65 billion gloves and 129 billion face masks are used every month. This translates into three million masks used per minute, according to the study. I couldnt believe it. In fact, staff at Thermal Compaction Group in Cardiff also cant believe theyre the first in the world to come up with a technology that has the potential to convert so much waste into something of value. A closer look at the blocks piled up on the floor like pieces of a Jenga puzzle, and you could be forgiven for thinking these were made by an artist. Imagine mixing blue, white and yellow paint into a tray, swirling the colours around, and the result at times resembles ocean-themed art. But this isnt paint of course, theyre simply hospital curtains, wraps and personal protective equipment that come in various colours. Staff have spent endless nights, sometimes until 3 or 4 a.m., trying to master the recipe by counting the masks by hand and by playing around with the temperature. Right now, the blocks are sold to companies that want to repurpose plastic. The director, Thomas Davison-Sebry, has a dream. He wants the blocks to be converted into filament that can be used for 3D printing so people in their own homes can make, for example, their own cups and cutlery. In other words, printing from plastic waste. The next item they want to be able to throw in the machine, along with the face masks, are used COVID-19 tests. We are very confident that the testing stage were at the moment indicates we have a successful solution for that, said their environmental director, Mathew Rapson. Thank you for taking the time to read this article, please remember to come back and check The Euro Weekly News website for all your up-to-date local and international news stories.