Submission (#2891) Approved

Submission 3/3

Storytime!

Visiting a friends' house over the holidays, I saw that they had a set of recycling/trash collection boxes from Terracycle, a company that makes its profit on helping facilitate recycling for hard-to-recycle items that aren't accepted by most/many/any municipal recycling programs. I've heard in the past that they aren't nearly as good at 'being green' as they present themselves, but I noticed one of the boxes was specifically for collecting & recyling PPE/masks/disposed one-use respirators.

I really *want* to use a reuseable respirator. I have a model that I find comfortable to wear, even. But I can't use it at work because the "no exhalation valve" version gets too wet to wear for long b/c it's so good at protecting me (traps water vapor from breath), and the "one-way exhalation valve" version would protect me. Additionally, people think they can't hear me when I'm wearing is, and I get hoarse quickly from raising my voice.

So for the meantime, I have a giant box of....disposable single-use respirators. I re-use them as often as I can, but I still wish they weren't going into the landfills.

I'm going to find out if and how terracycle recycles n95 mask material. If it looks legit and affordable, maybe: I buy a box from them, and when its full of disposed material it ships back!