Single-use face masks get new life thanks to Regina engineer

A University of Regina professor who's spent decades researching how to recycle waste is turning her attention to single-use face masks.

It's her way of tackling a seemingly insurmountable, global problem brought on by plastic personal protection equipment.

"I grew up on a farm, so we're used to taking bail or twine and barbed wire to fix things," said Denise Stilling. "Re-purposing and re-using is part of my DNA as a Saskatchewan farm girl."

Stilling, a mechanical engineering associate professor, has experimented for years with melting down waste products like old tires and grain bags into new materials like pavement blocks.

When face masks were mandated in certain public places to slow the spread of COVID-19, she found her next challenge.

"Once the pandemic hit, and you saw all these masks littering the sidewalks and coming in our waterway, that's when I went — let's do masks."

A 2020 study suggested 129 billion masks were used around the world every month at that time.

Many of the single-use masks are made with polypropylene plastic, which is a material that doesn't break down for hundreds of years. Though personal protective equipment is a tool to help slow the spread of COVID, researchers and environmentalists have flagged the damages the plastic causes since the start of the pandemic.

Stilling hopes that can change.

"What a great opportunity if we look at our landfills that are filled," she said.

"If we don't have to worry about the contamination, we can use sand and dirt as an additive, we've got a raw source that doesn't cost us hardly anything."

In a basement lab at the University of Regina, there are more than a dozen garbage bags and Tupperware containers full of used masks. Stilling gathered them from receptacles on campus.

She waits a significant amount of time before using them so that the virus can die off, and she can safely handle the material.

First, she removes the ear loops and metal nose piece. Then, she manually cuts the masks into strips. Those strips go into a shredder, which pumps out a fluffy material.