For one University of Regina researcher, giving face masks a second use is part of a larger effort to cut down on waste and create products through recycling.
Denise Stilling, an associate professor of industrial systems engineering, says her research has focused on waste streams and repurposing materials to create “value added, circular economies.”
“[I had] the opportunity to say; ‘Hey, can we find something of value and make something that can service society after it's been worn as a mask?’ That was the challenge that I embarked on,” Stilling told CTV News.
Stilling’s research has seen her experiment with grain bags, twine and bale wrap, all thought to be one-use products.
By adding sand and pulverised rubber to chopped up surgical masks, Stilling has created tiles and bricks to test the durability and strength of the newly created materials.
“I think there were like 120 billion masks per month that were being used worldwide, that were just being disposed of,” she said, adding that the pandemic has provided a stockpile of material for researchers like herself.
“It’s never going to replace a steel and it's never going to replace a virgin plastic for its strength. So, we're looking at non-structural kind of applications for it.”
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Even with the limitations of the material, the uses are almost endless, from tiles to 3D printing.
However, the biggest advantage, according to Stilling is that all products made from the material will be kept out of the garbage.
“One of the examples is that I have made bricks out of them … which could be used as paving stones. Then if they actually broke, you could melt them down and remake them again,” she explained.
“So it becomes a circular economy and none of this material has to ever end up in the landfill.”
For Stilling, she hopes that manufacturers will be able to utilize her research and make the popularize the practice of reclaiming materials such as surgical masks.
“It's not a matter of just writing a research paper that goes into an academic journal that may never be looked at, but being able to find these actual properties and go to that next step and transfer this technology so it has some kind of practical use,” she said.
“There's nothing more green than making a green dollar off of the green research that you do in making a recycled product.”
