An approach to reduce environmental hazards by utilizing used facemasks

The ongoing pandemic has taught us to comply with certain precautionary measures to safeguard our health. In this regard, we were strictly instructed to employ protections. Facemask and gloves have been commonly used in daily routine. While they do safeguard us, used Facemask and gloves have become a great concern as there has to be a mechanism to treat this ever-increasing waste. Facemasks are the consumables that do not get easily decomposed. The project was initiated to utilize this waste and transform the masks into useful, non-hazardous products. Therefore, after proper cleaning/sanitization of used masks, the wastage was converted into vases, flowerpots, and false ceiling. This article puts forward the developed methods to utilize waste productively. The study is meant to actually initiate such pragmatic ideas, find out ways to significantly reduce the wastage and propagate the concept of recycling to ensure a healthy environment.