The COVID-19 virus made people defend their lungs with face masks. Over months of the pandemic, those disposable personal protective equipment (PPE) pose a threat to the environment in France and other countries, said the France24.
Since the corona pandemic started, face masks have become a must-have in the fight to curb infections. But with countries ramping up production of a largely disposable product, a new environmental problem is emerging.
The environmentalists believe that there are some solutions. The businessmen showed their full support. Over six months, a French firm Plaxtil has been recycling thousands of face masks, turning the potentially hazardous waste into useful products.
“We said to ourselves: it’s not possible, it’s not inevitable that these masks will end up either in nature or incinerated,” Plaxtil co-founder Olivier Civil said.
Civil added that the firm is recycling PPEs to do something with this material and to renew masks’ value. The firm has already recycled more than 50,000 masks, producing between 2,000 and 3,000 recycled products since mid-summer.
Plaxtil was launched in November 2019, and specialises in recycling clothes by turning them into a plastic-like material – also called Plaxtil. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, it switched to recycling masks instead.
