Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the amount of PPE being produced and used has soared. An estimated 8.4 million tonnes of plastic waste has been generated from 193 countries including respirators and masks that have been thrown away, the majority of which ends up in landfill or, in some areas, the ocean.
Globus Group, a UK-based firm that makes PPE, has teamed up with researchers at Heriot-Watt University to develop a new process that can turn used PPE into a secondary raw material called pyrolysis oil, which can then be refined into commercial products such as new PPE products or fuels.
The project, which aims to create a robust circular economy approach for plastics, will run for two years.
Globus Group said it had produced one billion medical masks and 300 million FFP respirators per annum for healthcare trusts across the UK since the pandemic started. The manufacturing process currently results in 7g of waste material per medical mask.
The...