In the rush to protect ourselves from the possibility of contracting the coronavirus, not many have lent a thought to the pile of face masks that ends up in landfills and oceans as a result of it. A French company is doing just that, possibly on behalf of everyone else!

The company – which had earlier channelled its expertise in producing a plastic material from recycled textiles (see Plasteurope.com of 25.11.2020) – is now working with the French city of Meudon to repurpose the used face masks collected by the city into rulers and squares for schoolchildren.

Meudon has set up 25 collection points for masks in the city – mostly in public areas, markets and schools – to collect used masks, which, after seven days of “quarantine” are collected, sorted and sent to Plaxtil for recycling. The aim of this initiative by the French city is also to familiarise children with the concept of recycling, and thus, making them more aware of what they consume on a daily basis.

All this talk of schools and rulers and recycling is now making us wonder if our discarded school stationery ever ended up getting recycled!