SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — Kolon Group, a mid-sized business conglomerate focused on the chemical and textile businesses, said Wednesday it had succeeded in recycling one-off masks that are wasted after a single use through an in-house campaign.
The group installed one-off mask collection boxes at seven major workplaces across the country and provided employees with portable collection bags.
After collecting discarded masks, Kolon recycled them into hangers used at its fashion affiliate’s outlets.
After being mixed with subsidiary materials, the first batch of collected masks was converted into about 2 tons of polypropylene pellets and then about 29,000 clothes hangers.
There have been various attempts to recycle polypropylene, a chemical material used in one-off masks. However, it was cumbersome to separate mask components, including mask filters, nose wires and straps.
Kolon launched the mask collection and recycling campaign based on the consideration that about 60 million one-off masks are wasted every month in South Korea.
It takes more than 450 years for these masks to decompose naturally. If they are turned into fine plastics, they could have a negative impact on the ecosystem.
Image Credit: Kolon Group / photonews@koreabizwire.com
