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Public Handling of Protective Masks from Use to Disposal and Recycling Options to New Products
Summary
This paper examines how disposable surgical masks — widely used during the pandemic — are being disposed of and their environmental impacts, including the release of microplastic fibers. The authors discuss recycling options and the public's current relationship with mask waste.
A study was conducted on the waste of disposable surgical masks and their problematic impact on the environment. The studies examined have shown the negative effects on the environment that are likely to occur and those that have already occurred. In this article, society's relationship to the potential recycling of disposable surgical masks is considered and projected onto the possibilities of the cradle-to-cradle design approach. The development of a product from recycled surgical masks is driven by two different surveys. The first focuses on wear and disposal habits, and the second on the relationship to recycling. As a result, the flooring was developed with thermally treated recycled surgical masks replacing the filler layer. The goal of the product design was to improve the long-term life cycle analysis of a waste surgical mask.
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