Strategies to Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Protective Face Masks

Searching of excellence in energy and environmental achievements is the goal of organizations all over the world, fostering innovative technology to lower pollution level. However, spreading of SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19 pandemic has threaten this objective as sanitary urgences had to be satisfied sacrificing environ-mental issues. At the end of 2019 in Wuhan (People’s Republic of China), a virus belonging to the coronavirus family, currently known as Sars-CoV-2, responsible for the disease known as COVID19, was identified. Due to the strong viral load of the pathogen, the disease has spread to almost all parts of the world, so much so that it was declared a pandemic by the WHO on March 11, 2020 (WHO, 2020). The virus is highly spread via droplets of saliva emitted from the nose and mouth during coughing, sneezing or simply talking; therefore, protection of the airways is the basis of prevention from the spread of the disease, together with distancing, frequent hand washing. Among sanitary emergencies the use of protective facial masks played a crucial role in defending people from diffusion of the virus, and supply of huge amounts of facepiece respirators, generated both economic and environmental issues. The intensive production of the protective face masks entails a significant environmental impact, considering the entire life cycle of each individual mask (from the cradle to the grave). The from “cradle to cradle” approach has not been followed due to sanitary constrains and the real danger of virus spreading due to the reuse/recycle of the used masks. Moreover, the production of the non-woven fabrics with the desired filtration efficiency and pandemic containment requires polymers of high purity difficult to obtain from recycled materials. More than 380 and 402 billion units were sold in 2020 and 2021, respectively, compared to about 12 billion in 2019. Although sales returned gradually to the pre-pandemic levels, registering about 28 billion units in 2023, the environmental issues remain a crucial problem considering the goals of sustainability. In the light of the above premises, the current chapter describes the structure of the surgery and FFP masks, the production processes, the environmental impacts in the life cycle perspective, focusing on the studies on carbon footprint. The effect of a proper selection of materials and of sanitization techniques on the carbon footprint as an environmental sustainability indicator to enhance the environmental performance of the face masks supply chain has been extensively reported. The chapter aims to provide a useful tool for supporting policymakers to select the best climate change mitigation strategies in the face masks supply chain.