Insulative nonwoven from recycled medical face masks and pineapple leaf fibres.

Abstract

Recycling is a way to process, the used materials (waste) into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials. Textile waste recycling becomes more important phenomenon, bearing in mind the limited availability of resources to produce natural fibres as well as fossil raw materials to make synthetic fibres. Recycled textile waste can be further converted in the form of fibre for filling, recycled yarn, recycled woven fabric, recycled nonwoven fabrics etc. Therefore, the present study has been conducted to prepare nonwoven fabric by use of recycled medical masks and pineapple leaf fibres. In a singular period, such as during a pandemic, the use of personal protective masks can become mandatory for all citizens in many places worldwide. The most used device is the disposable mask that, inevitably, generates a substantial waste flow to send to incineration or landfill. The article examines the most diffused type of disposable face mask and identifies the characteristic of the constituent materials through morphological, chemical, physical, and thermal analyse.