A light blue mask blows from an overflowing bin outside Exeter St David’s station and falls into the gutter where it is swept out of sight.
Single-use plastics take up eight of the top ten finds in international coastal cleanups according to Ocean Conservancy, a partner of the UN Clean Seas initiative. This initiative further states “only nine per cent of the plastic waste the world has ever produced has been recycled”. Plastic pollution is not new, it’s part of a global environmental crisis, but the pandemic has shone a spotlight on the gaps in our waste disposal and plastic creation systems as our local fishing vessels begin pulling up catches of single use masks. (French non-profit Opération Mer Propre found “dozens of gloves, masks and bottles of hand sanitiser beneath the waves of the Mediterranean” in June last year). What can our community do to fix this issue together?
Don’t make so much plastic:
Possibly the most obvious way to tackle mask pollution is to avoid single-use masks. The UN supports washable masks and recent research from the Universities of Bristol and Surrey found that “under ideal conditions and dependent on the fit, three-layered cloth masks can perform similarly to surgical masks for filtering droplets” making them “as effective at reducing the transmission of COVID-19”. Of course even material masks will become unusable, seams break or stretch becoming loose and ineffective, they then can be put in cloth recycling; however textiles with many seams such as masks, which are not suitable for reuse, may be incinerated. You can extend the life of your cloth mask by washing it in a net bag to protect it, buying a mask which fits you well so you aren’t pulling on stress points and repairing small tears as soon as you spot them- so get your needle and thread out! You could also unpick the seams of your cloth mask flattening the material, this will make it easier to recycle and keep them out of the flames.
Better systems of disposal solution:
A report in the January issue of Resources, Conservation and Recycling, an academic journal publishing research into sustainable management and conservation of resources, highlights four key areas to improve recycling: standardisation (of materials, kerbside collection and waste sorting), infrastructure investment, development of cross-supply chain business models and creation of higher value recyclate.
Improved waste disposal is important, as much of the pollution caused by masks is due to improper disposal or littering. There is “no national government coordination” of recycling infrastructure, according to the report, this lack of a developed structure of standardised traded plastic waste across the UK means that investment is often split and therefore less effective, and deals are negotiated by individual companies, with different recycling capabilities. These solutions are limited by the fact that there has been no updated statistics on waste since 2017 and without data it is difficult to assess where resources should be targeted.
Circular economy: PPE pollution is clearly a pressing problem as the late 2020 UN report “Waste management during the COVID-19 pandemic” states “It is also estimated that the increase of healthcare waste from healthcare facilities associated with COVID-19 is 3.4kg/person/day”.
PPE is usually burnt in hospital incinerators or left in landfill from which it may enter the water cycle—blown off landfill sites, flushed or dropped on the street— however Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust is tackling the problem. They have started working with with disposal company Thermal Compaction Group to dispose of PPE through a process called “sterimelt” which converts masks into “bottles, bins and toolboxes”, TCG say this is part of creating “a circular economy”. Royal Devon and Exeter hospital responded to request for comment stating “The safety of our staff, patients and visitors remains top priority” but they are exploring how they can “reduce waste consumption”, so far “all staff have been given reusable masks to wear to,from and outside of work”.
Another company,TerraCycle has created a“Zero Waste Box”where the public, as well as private companies, can mail used masks to be broken into their separate components for recycling. Sam Angel, a representative for TerraCycle, states that the company currently cannot offer free recycling for PPE, “like [they] do for waste streams such as flexible cheese packaging, biscuit wrappers and medicine blister packs” because the complex material make-up of disposable PPE makes it expensive to process. “TerraCycle can only recycle [PPE] if someone is covering the processing costs” and they “do not have a brand sponsor willing to cover the costs of recycling PPE in the UK” however they are “focusing on spreading awareness of the Zero Waste Box solution”.The process on their website is simple, you select the type of box you want from their wide range, you might want one for masks, one for all PPE or perhaps one for plastic packaging; when you get your box fill it up and then return it with the prepaid label. Mask recycling boxes start at £132.7 (fitting 433 masks), the cost includes “TerraCycle shipping the empty box to the customer, the customer shipping a full box back to us, and the cost of the recycling process itself”. This may be prohibitive for an individual or family, so a solution could be to set up a community drop point, or club together with other families!
Do you have any more ideas? Please comment with resources and links!
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