is used as a protective barrier against COVID-19 and is strongly recommended across all Canadian provinces.
of medical PPE will end up in Canadian landfills by the end of this year.
Thats enough PPE to go
or about 2,500,000km
Masks and respirators are used to protect our community
Used masks an respirators are disposed to Vitacore bins
Vitacore bins are collected and safely transported to a facility
Used masks and respirators are sorted and sterilized through a high heat process
Sterilized used masks and respirators are melted down into polypropylene pellets
Polypropylene pellets are repurposed (e.g. construction material)
Yes! We pride ourselves on the fact that we can partner with all hospitals and medical care facilities as we understand these are where high numbers of personal protective equipment are used. We have specially designed programs for these. Reach out to us at recycling@vitacore.ca if you are a health care facility looking to get started recycling single use items.
For community bins: Small: 25.4x 25.4x38cm (10x10x15 in) Medium: 30x30x71cm (12x12x28in) Large: 45.7x45.7x86.4cm (18x18x34in)
Unfortunately at this time we cannot accept individuals to mail in their masks. This is why we have created the personal sized bins, to allow individuals to collect these items from their homes or workplaces and send them back themselves. We are actively looking for solutions to make this more accessible to the public.
Currently we only supply recycle bins to people, businesses, and organizations that have enrolled with our program. Our bins are available across Canada in hopes to reduce PPE waste.
Canada alone is set to produce over 63,000 tons of PPE waste during the pandemic. Like most other single-use plastic products, there are three typical destinations for these products: landfills, incineration, or floating in the oceans.
Polypropylene (PP) is a durable plastic that has many uses and applications. Our main user groups are in building and construction supplies where they produce products such as concrete reinforcement, weather membranes, and exterior sidings. Another large user is the textiles industry, they use it for carpeting and a wide range of structural fabrics.
Collected PPE travels through a series of machines that will sterilize, compact, and reprocess the polypropylene into pellets. The first step sterilizes and compacts the materials into a dense mixture of plastic and aluminum. Those blocks are then fed into a machine that shreds it into smaller fragments to allow for the separation of materials. Finally, the polypropylene fragments are processed and turned into plastic pellets.
The masks we can recycle are Vitacore CAN95 and CAN99 respirators or Vitacore surgical masks, other companies’ disposable 3-layer surgical masks, and 4- or 5-layer KN95 or N95 respirators. We can also collect hairnets, as well as polypropylene isolation gowns. We recommend connecting with our team if you are curious about a specific item and we can help to determine if this can be accepted.