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3D Printing and Moulding with Recycled Facemasks

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Can we turn waste PPE into something useful for society? This work explores methods to recycle disused type IIR Facemasks into new products.

Discussions

Ric Real wrote 10/16/2021 at 00:01 point

The printed part doesn’t actually look too bad… which is somewhat surprising, given that it’s entirely 3D printed with disposable facemasks.

Of course, these are fairly idealised conditions, the masks used are 100% Polypropylene and have never been worn. This work is therefore a step towards better understanding the challenges in recycling this type of PPE. 

The areas we identify for future work include: 

Would this process be feasible on a larger scale? 
1) Processing mixed materials i.e. could a range of similar type masks all be put through the same machine, and would this produce anything useful?  
2) Could the fibrous nature of these masks be exploited for use in composites? 
3) What are the best practices for collecting PPE waste for recycling? 
4) Could institutions (such as universities) create their own PPE circular economy? Overseeing the distribution, collection, and recycling of PPE. 

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