Can you recycle single use masks?
Photo credit: Mary Caporal Prio
As more and more people are getting vaccinated, and restrictions and needs for masks are slowly loosening up, we still are using them. So what can we do with our disposable masks? Yes, some of us have cloth masks. I do now. But what about all the many single use masks I used over the past year? I have been holding onto them to avoid filling landfills, polluting our water, and tangling animals as I wait to hear what we can possibly do.
Are masks recyclable? Has a new startup come up with some creative use for masks we are done with?
As of now these seem to be the options:
1 - You can recycle them through TerraCycle. TerraCycle will send you a small “Zero Waste” box, which can be then sent back to the company,. The box costs $86. If you live in a building, see if you and a group of neighbors can pitch in and split the cost. Leave it out for all neighbors and take charge of returning it to TerraCycle weekly. You can set up a GoFundMe or leave your Venmo address by the box to collect donations from your neighbors for the time and $86 down payment.
Apparently the boxes cost so much because once the masks are melted down, the resulting plastic does not look great - looking uneven and dull TerraCycle cannot make much money selling it, so they don’t even profit from the $86, but it does prevent the from losing money.
This is far from a perfect solution as said in High Country News: “Determining what constitutes responsible disposal, however, is not straightforward. And, experts say, a truly sustainable solution would require rethinking manufacturing systems, long before any masks hit the trash or recycling bin.” But it’s too late for that now. High Country News followed the process TerraCycle uses from start to finish and reported on it. You can read about it here.
2 - No matter how you dispose of your masks, cut off the ear straps so animals cannot get tangled in them.
3 - Extend the life of a single use mask by disinfecting it properly. Apparently baking it in the oven at 170 degrees. This article in Columbia Climate School’s State of the Planet details how.
Ideally you want to buy reusable masks and wash them in between each use. Yes, we are easing away from masks, but hold onto them. Once we are done with mask mandates, suggestions, or even having it just be the smart and considerate thing to do, they could be usable in the future. I sincerely hope we never have a pandemic like this again, but they could become part of our culture here in the United States, the way they are in many other countries. We could use them during cold and flu season if we feel ourselves starting to get sick.
If not, then you can recycle them in fabric recycling centers, or try reaching out to fashion schools to see if the students could have a use for any future projects.
Ideally, masks would not have been made single use (not counting masks for doctors), and from plastics, with no recycling plan, in the first place. But given it was a global pandemic that took us by surprise, it is okay we did not handle things perfectly. Now, we need to figure out how to deal with this as best as possible. While none of the above solutions are perfect, they definitely help.