A company in France is producing face masks made out of hemp. The masks are being pitched as an alternative to single-use plastic ones. Worldwide, it’s estimated 129 billion disposable face masks and 65 billion gloves are used and thrown away every month.<\/p>\n
In a factory in rural France, a laser cuts through a hemp canvas on the production line of what the manufacturer says is Europe\u2019s first compostable face mask.<\/p>\n
Geochanvre pitches the hemp masks as a way to reduce plastic waste during the coronavirus pandemic from single-use protective gear that environmentalists say will take centuries to decompose and is polluting the oceans.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s heresy not to ban polyethylene products, materials that are shipped to all corners of the world. Use local agricultural materials,\u201d Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Roure, founding president of Geochanvre, told Reuters TV.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a natural product and will go back into the soil.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mask\u2019s lining includes a corn blend for comfort and the elastic band is recyclable.
\nBales of hemp fibre are passed through compressors and over rollers before emerging at the end of the line as hard-packed flat sheets, ready to be cut into shape and folded by hand.<\/p>\n
Customers, mostly from Europe and Canada, have so far bought 1.5 million of the hemp masks since March.<\/p>\n
Worldwide, an estimated 129 billion disposable face masks and 65 billion gloves are used every month, according to a study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
\nMost single-use protective gear is made from plastics including polypropylene, polythene and vinyl.<\/p>\n
Disposable plastic masks that end up in the oceans could take up to 450 years to decompose, according to campaign group Waste Free Oceans.
\nBiodegradable and compostable face masks, made from materials such as hemp or wood fibres, are being made or developed around the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A company in France is producing face masks made out of hemp. The masks are being pitched as an alternative to single-use plastic ones. Worldwide, it’s estimated 129 billion disposable face masks and 65 billion gloves are used and thrown away every month. In a factory in rural France, a laser cuts through a hemp […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[12239,12351,11877],"supplier":[18025,3416],"class_list":["post-83942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-compostability","tag-medicaldevices","tag-naturalfibres","supplier-geochanvre","supplier-world-economic-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83942"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=83942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}