Throughout the pandemic, most people have thrown away their fair shares of face masks.
But now, one university is working to make recycling masks a reality.
The University of Wisconsin - Madison is developing new technology that allows you to recycle plastics, like masks and even bags. The new technology grinds recycled masks down and pulls out polypropylene using a solvent.
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The polypropylene can then be used to make more masks and other items like yogurt cups.
“We definitely need a strategy to evaluate how to recycle the face mask using a very novel and technical and environmentally-friendly process,” said UW-Madison student Jiuling Yu.
The new technology isn’t ready to use yet, so you should continue to throw out your masks in the garbage.
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