Recyclability of medical personal protective equipment

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Hospitals and other medical facilities have a growing issue with the disposal of masks, gowns, wraps, and other plastic consumables, with an estimated 75% ending up in municipal landfills or oceans1. Typically, these plastic articles are decontaminated, and then incinerated. When incinerators cannot accommodate this waste, it is diverted to landfills at the expense of extra decontamination. There are no established recycling programs for this waste due to a lack of knowledge on the handling and upcycling of plastic articles within the public sector, which is a gap this project seeks to fill. Working with Carmina de Young (CdeY) and its subsidiary Lifecycle Revive (LR), this project proposes to create a self-contained sustainable supply chain for 100% Canadian-made disposable isolation gowns and related PPE in southwestern Ontario. The work will study the implications of melt recycling previously disinfected and cleaned medical personal protective equipment (notably face masks and gowns), holding off the degradative effects which naturally weaken recycled plastics, and produce a product suitable once again for medical use as a textile. The studies will be carried out in the Centre of Excellence in Protective Equipment and Materials at McMaster University, a new institute formed in response to the pandemic crisis. Similarly, Lifecycle Revive is a recently created industrial venture formed to address waste issues within the medical sector, urgently needing to be addressed by the pandemic. By the end of 2021, Lifecycle Revive anticipates being able to divert 1 million pounds of waste from landfills every month with the developed recycling technology, reclaiming and process enough material to make 3 million isolation gowns each year.