Covid-19 pandemic: The quest for a disposable mask that won't pollute

Since the beginning of the pandemic, global production of face masks has rocketed to 129 billion a month from just an estimated 8 billion in all of 2019. While they’ve helped protect humans from Covid-19, the masks — which today are mostly made from plastic fibers that can take hundreds of years to disintegrate — are a threat for creatures that dwell in water bodies. Almost 1.6 billion of the face coverings likely ended up in the seas in 2020, based on a conservative assumption by the marine conservation nonprofit OceansAsia.

To address that problem, dozens of manufacturers are working on biodegradable masks. Some are made from new plastics said to self-destruct in a few months. Others use a plastic substitute made from corn starch and other sugars. And a few are even embedded with seeds.

“Biodegradable masks will be a big market with a lot of demand from governments who are seeing what a big problem mask pollution is becoming,” says Francois Dalibard, chief executive officer of Groupe Lemoine, a French company that manufactured 500 million face masks this year.

UK startup Polymateria Ltd has patented a formula that uses about a dozen chemicals — rubbers, oils, desiccants — added to plastics during manufacturing.

Although several companies offer certification for biodegradable plastics, verifying claims is difficult. “Biodegradation of plastics is a complex process that depends on both the material itself and the conditions of the environment in which it takes place,” says Nicole Grobert, chair of the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors to the European Commission.

Indian startups have also adopted the idea, putting seeds of tomatoes, okra, and other vegetables into face coverings made from recycled cloth.

“We need masks to be reusable where possible, but many of us will still use and prefer disposable ones,” says Yeen Seen Ng, founder of think tank Centre for Research, Advisory and Technology. “We need biodegradable mask innovation and technologies to tackle the pollution challenge.”