A new collaboration among campus partners at Wilfrid Laurier University will reduce the amount of personal protective equipment (PPE) that ends up in landfills.
The Sustainability Office, the Ecohawks club at Laurier’s Brantford campus and the Students’ Union have installed PPE recycling bins across Laurier campuses in Brantford and Waterloo. PPE collected through the bins – including disposable gloves and face masks – will be sterilized and formed into pellets by third-party vendor LifeCycle Revive in Brantford.
The pellets can be used to create nonwoven textiles for masks, disposable isolation gowns and injection-molded items used in health-care settings.
The Sustainability Office estimates the bins can divert nearly 30,000 pairs of disposable gloves used by Laurier staff and students each year.
