Recyclability of medical personal protective equipment

医院和其他医疗设施在处理口罩、长袍、包装和其他塑料消耗品方面面临越来越大的问题，估计75%的塑料最终进入市政垃圾填埋场或海洋1。通常，这些塑料制品被净化，然后焚烧。当焚化炉无法容纳这些废物时，就将其转移到垃圾填埋场，代价是额外的净化。由于公共部门对塑料制品的处理和升级回收缺乏了解，因此没有针对这种废物的既定回收计划，这是该项目寻求填补的空白。该项目与Carmina de Young（CdeY）及其子公司Carmina Revive（LR）合作，计划在安大略西南部为100%加拿大制造的一次性隔离衣和相关PPE创建一个自给自足的可持续供应链。这项工作将研究熔融回收以前消毒和清洁的医疗个人防护设备（特别是口罩和长袍）的影响，阻止自然削弱再生塑料的降解作用，并生产出再次适合作为纺织品用于医疗用途的产品。这些研究将在麦克马斯特大学的防护设备和材料卓越中心进行，这是一个为应对大流行病危机而成立的新研究所。 同样地，最近成立的一家工业企业，旨在解决医疗行业的废物问题，这是疫情迫切需要解决的问题。预计到2021年底，通过开发的回收技术，每个月能够从垃圾填埋场转移100万磅废物，回收和处理足够的材料，每年制造300万件隔离衣。

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.