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Cotton and Surgical Masks—What Ecological Factors Are Relevant for Their Sustainability?

Author

Listed:
  • Mélanie Schmutz

    (Technology and Society Laboratory, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), CH-9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland)

  • Roland Hischier

    (Technology and Society Laboratory, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), CH-9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland)

  • Till Batt

    (Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles Laboratory, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), CH-9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland)

  • Peter Wick

    (Particles-Biology Interactions Laboratory, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), CH-9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland)

  • Bernd Nowack

    (Technology and Society Laboratory, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), CH-9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland)

  • Patrick Wäger

    (Technology and Society Laboratory, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), CH-9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland)

  • Claudia Som

    (Technology and Society Laboratory, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), CH-9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland)

Abstract

With the COVID-19 pandemic, wearing facemasks became common. Many initiatives arose to develop new types of reusable textile masks in order to overcome a shortage of surgical masks for the health care personnel and for the civil society. Having such high demand of facemasks raises the question about what factors define their environmental sustainability. This paper presents a first simplified Life-Cycle-Assessment (LCA) comparing surgical masks and 2-layered cotton masks. The aim of the paper is to identify and understand the relevant ecological factors in order to support decision making on how textile masks could be designed in a more sustainable manner. The results of our simplified LCA show that the cotton masks were performing better than the surgical masks and vice versa depending on the environmental impact that was looked at. It was also found that the lifespan and the weight of the cotton masks are two variables having a great importance for their overall environmental performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Mélanie Schmutz & Roland Hischier & Till Batt & Peter Wick & Bernd Nowack & Patrick Wäger & Claudia Som, 2020. "Cotton and Surgical Masks—What Ecological Factors Are Relevant for Their Sustainability?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:24:p:10245-:d:458702
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Lynne Peeples, 2020. "Face masks: what the data say," Nature, Nature, vol. 586(7828), pages 186-189, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Honglei Lu & Chunxiao Zhu & Xin Cao & Yen Hsu, 2022. "The Sustainability Evaluation of Masks Based on the Integrated Rank Sum Ratio and Entropy Weight Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-13, May.

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