THE USED SURGICAL MASKS: FROM WASTE TO RESOURCE

The general focus of research is the development of recycling protocols for disposable surgical masks into new raw materials for different possible applications. Separation of various constituent materials was performed by manual procedure or by water floating. The potentially targeted end applications are thin film and glass fibre composites. Polypropylene thin-films with a thickness of 100 micron were produced by compounding the face mask polymer with different content of a virgin PP, in the range 20-80 wt%. Face mask polypropylene (FM-PP) composites containing glass fibre of 15 wt% and 30 wt% were also prepared, evidencing an improvement of stiffness and strength, furtherly increased in presence of coupling agent. © 2022 Fambri et al.